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THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 


THE   TEACHERS    OF 
EMERSON 


BY 
JOHN  S.  HARRISON,  Ph.D. 

ASSISTANT  PROFESSOR  OF  ENGLISH  IN   KENYON  COLLEGE 


Hew 

STURGIS  &  WALTON 
COMPANY 

1910 

All  rights  reserved 


0EKERAI 


Copyright  1910 
By  STURGIS  &  WALTON  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  April,  1910 


WO 


In  flBemorfam 

WILLIAM  OGDEN  HARRISON 
MARCH   12,   1909 


208545 


PREFACE 

The  aim  of  this  work  is  to  show  the  essen 
tially  Platonic  quality  of  Emerson's  thought. 
It  is  often  held  that  his  transcendentalism  has 
its  source  in  the  philosophy  of  Germany,  and 
that  his  mysticism  is  an  inheritance  from  the 
sacred  books  of  the  East.  But  a  careful  study 
has  convinced  the  author  that  Greek  thought 
has  been  the  most  important  factor  in  Emer 
son's  intellectual  development.  Beneath  the 
surface  of  his  days  and  years  there  ran  a  spirit 
of  philosophic  inquiry  which  was  fed  by  re 
peated  readings  in  the  old  philosophers  of 
Greece.  From  these  sons  of  light  he  drank 
in  large  draughts  of  intellectual  day.  The 
author  has  attempted  to  show  this  by  a  com 
parative  study  of  Emerson  and  the  Platonists. 

In  his  studies  the  author  has  been  helped 
by  the  labors  of  Dr.  E.  W.  Emerson,  whose 
edition  of  the  Complete  Works  of  Emerson 
has  afforded  many  valuable  suggestions  re 
garding  Emerson's  acquaintance  with  the  old 
philosophers.  James  Elliot  Cabot's  Memoir 


PREFACE 

and  Charles  Eliot  Norton's  edition  of  the 
Correspondence  of  Emerson  and  Carlyle  have 
also  been  helpful.  For  the  use  which  the 
author  has  made  of  these  three  works,  he  takes 
pleasure  in  thanking  the  publishers,  Messrs. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company,  who  kindly 
granted  the  necessary  permission.  To  the 
generosity  of  Mr.  Thomas  M.  Johnson,  of 
Osceola,  Missouri,  the  author  is  greatly  in 
debted.  It  was  from  him  that  the  rare  vol 
umes  of  the  Platonists  were  obtained.  For 
his  kindness  in  lending  these  absolutely  essen 
tial  books  the  author  expresses  warmest  thanks. 

JOHN  S.  HARRISON. 
GAMBIER,  OHIO,  March  24,  1910. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
EMERSON'S   PLATONISM 3 

CHAPTER  II 
NATURE 32 

CHAPTER  III 

S°UL 77 

THE  OVER-SOUL 80 

II    INTELLECT 125 

III    THE  WORLD-SOUL 139 

CHAPTER  IV 
LOVE  AND  BEAUTY 145 

CHAPTER  V 
ART      .    . ,  Y 186 

CHAPTER  VI 
MYTHOLOGY 221 

CHAPTER  VII 
THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM 263 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 3I7 

INDEX  .     ,:    .    w    :..    ,.. w    ,  .321 


THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 


THE 
TEACHERS   OF   EMERSON 

CHAPTER  I 

EMERSON'S  PLATONISM 

THE  mind  of  Emerson  may  best  be  stud 
ied  from  the  standpoint  of  Platonism. 
If  one  examines  the  chief  centers  of  his  teach 
ing  to  be  found  in  his  conception  of  nature, 
soul,  love  and  beauty,  art,  and  mythology,  he 
will  find  that  Emerson  in  his  most  character 
istic  utterances  is  indebted  to  Plato  and  the 
Platonists.  In  those  great  intellectual  teach 
ers  Emerson  found  a  body  of  thought  which 
he  so  thoroughly  appropriated  that  to  under 
stand  the  character  of  his  mind  it  is  necessary 
to  watch  it  consciously  forming  itself  in  keep 
ing  with  the  main  trend  of  Platonic  specula 
tion. 

The  Platonism,  however,  which  is  thus  as 
cendent  in  Emerson's  thought,  is  not  iden 
tified  with  the  body  of  philosophical  doctrine 

3 


4     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

which  present-day  scholarship  assigns  to  Plato 
and  which  for  English  readers  is  presented  in 
the  volumes  of  Jowett's  translation  (1871). 
Those  volumes  came  to  Emerson's  shelves,  but 
so  late  in  life  as  to  find  him  with  his  work 
already  done.  It  was  the  fruits  of  an  earlier 
era  of  Platonic  scholarship  that  Emerson  en 
joyed.  In  the  complete  translation  of  Plato 
made  by  Thomas  Taylor  (1804)  and  in  his 
earlier  translation,  The  Cratylus,  Phcedo, 
Parmenides,  and  Tinuzus  of  Plato  (1793) 
Emerson  found  a  rendering  of  Plato  and  an 
interpretation  of  his  doctrine  that  identified 
Platonism  with  the  final  stage  of  Hellenic 
speculation  now  named  Neo-Platonism.  The 
center  of  that  new  philosophy  was  Plotinus 
and  the  great  commentator  and  expounder  of 
its  doctrines  was  Proclus.  Taylor  esteemed 
the  thinking  of  these  men,  especially  of  Proc 
lus,  all  important  in  the  right  interpretation 
of  Plato,  and  to  render  Plato  in  an  English 
dress  "unattended  with  his  Greek  interpreters 
in  the  same  garb,"  Taylor  assured  his  readers 
in  his  Dedication,  is  to  act  "like  one  who 
gives  an  invaluable  casket,  but  without  the 
only  key  by  which  it  can  be  unlocked." 
Later  the  Bohn  translation  of  Plato  (1848) 
came  into  Emerson's  hands,  but  in  spite  of 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM          $ 

its  aim  to  present  Plato  without  "the  absurd 
mysticism  and  fanatical  extravagances  which 
the  New  Platonists  introduced  in  their  inter 
pretations,"  1  it  was  not  able  to  counteract  the 
effects  of  Emerson's  earlier  readings  in  Tay 
lor's  edition;  Emerson  still  remained  at  heart 
a  sympathizer  with  the  manner  of  the  later 
school  of  Platonism. 

His  readings  in  other  translations  of 
Thomas  Taylor  are  proof  of  the  attraction 
which  the  writings  of  the  Platonists  had  for 
him.  The  Select  Works  of  Plotinus,  On  the 
Theology  of  Plato  by  Proclus,  The  Commen 
taries  on  the  Timaus  of  Plato  by  the  same, 
The  Mysteries  of  the  Egyptians,  Chaldeans 
and  Assyrians  by  lamblichus,  The  Life  of 
Pythagoras  by  the  same,  to  which  is  added  a 
Collection  of  Pythagoric  Sentences,  the  treat 
ise  On  the  Nature  of  the  Universe  by  Ocellus 
Lucanus,  were  all  translations  by  Thomas 
Taylor  with  which  Emerson  was  familiar. 
All  but  the  last  two  he  had  in  his  own  library 
at  Concord.  In  them  he  found  a  mass  of 
comment  culled  by  Taylor  from  obscure  Pla 
tonists.  To  the  Select  Works  of  Plotinus 
was  appended  an  extract  from  the  treatise  of 
Synesius  On  Providence,  which  Emerson  con- 

1 II.,  General  Introduction,  p.  I. 


6     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

sidered  "one  of  the  majestic  remains  of  lit 
erature."  *  Generally  throughout  these  Taylor 
translations  and  especially  in  the  writings  of 
Proclus,  Emerson  found  frequent  mention  of 
Chaldean,  or  Zoroastrian,  Oracles.  Taylor 
published  a  collection  of  them  in  the  Classical 
Journal  for  1817  and  1818.  These  oracles 
were  esteemed  by  Proclus  as  genuine  frag 
ments  of  wisdom.  Emerson,  however,  made 
no  inquiry  into  their  genuineness;  not  caring, 
he  said,  "whether  they  are  genuine  antiques 
or  modern  counterfeits,  as  I  am  only  con 
cerned  with  the  good  sentences,  and  it  is  in 
different  how  old  a  truth  is."  2  Emerson  read 
Porphyry  also  along  with  other  books,  "to 
pass  away  the  cold  and  rainy  season"  of  i84i.3 
The  work  of  this  author  must  have  been  Tay 
lor's  translation  of  Porphyry's  Select  Works. 
The  substance  of  Porphyry's  life  of  Plotinus 
was  available  for  him  in  Taylor's  introduc 
tion  to  the  Select  Works  of  Plotinus.  With 
The  Divine  Pymander  of  Hermes  Mercurius 
Trismegistus  in  the  translation  made  of  the 
work  by  Dr.  Everard  in  1650,  Emerson  also 

1  Complete  Works,  VII.,  202. 

2  J.  E.  Cabot,  A  Memoir  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  I.,  290, 
291. 

.,  II,  449- 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM         7 

had  an  acquaintance.  His  reading  led  him 
into  a  translation  of  the  Akhlak-I-Jalaly  made 
by  W.  F.  Thomson  (1839),  which  was  the 
medium  through  which  the  philosophy  of 
Plato  and  Aristotle  got  into  Mahometism. 
With  Taylor's  translation  of  Sallust  On  the 
Gods  and  the  World  Emerson  may  also  have 
been  familiar,  for  he  quotes  from  it  in  Xature. 
He  had  Taylor's  translation  of  The  Pyth- 
agoric  Sentences  of  Demophilus.  He  prob 
ably  availed  himself  of  the  other  translations 
of  Plotinus  made  by  Thomas  Taylor — Five 
Books  of  Plotinus,  On  Suicide,  and  An  Essay 
on  the  Beautiful — though  no  reference  by 
name  to  these  works  appear  in  Emerson. 
Emerson's  reading  in  the  Neo-Platonists  was 
then  as  vital  a  thing  as  his  reading  in  Plato; 
and  his  indebtedness  to  these  writers  must 
never  be  forgotten  in  explaining  his  concep 
tion  of  Platonism. 

For  the  man  whose  life  labors  made  possi 
ble  the  enjoyment  of  these  obscure  philoso 
phers  Emerson  has  the  highest  praise. 
"There  are  also  prose  poets,"  he  \vrites. 
"Thomas  Taylor,  the  Platonist,  for  instance, 
is  really  a  better  man  of  imagination,  a  better 
poet,  or  perhaps  I  should  say  a  better  feeder 


8     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

to  a  poet,  than  any  man  between  Milton  and 
Wordsworth."  1  During  his  visits  to  England 
Emerson  was  constantly  inquiring  of  the  men 
he  met  whether  they  had  read  Taylor.  And 
it  was  incredible,  so  he  told  Wordsworth, 
that  no  one  in  all  England  knew  anything  of 
Thomas  Taylor,  "whilst  in  every  American 
library  his  translations  are  found." 2  Such  re 
marks  testify  to  the  importance  which  Emer 
son  attached  to  Taylor's  work. 

The  effect  of  these  readings  in  the  Neo- 
Platonists  appears  in  Emerson's  adoption  of 
their  manner  of  interpreting  Plato.  They 
consider  the  highest  idea  in  Plato's  scheme  of 
metaphysics  the  idea  of  the  One  as  it  is  treated 
in  the  Parmenides.  They  identify  this  idea 
with  that  of  the  Good  which  in  the  Republic 
Plato  explains  is  the  highest  reality.  Thus 
Thomas  Taylor,  reflecting  their  method  of 
criticism,  writes :  "Of  all  the  dogmas  of  Plato, 
that  concerning  the  first  principle  of  things  as 
far  transcends  in  sublimity  the  doctrine  of 
other  philosophers  of  a  different  sect,  on  this 
subject,  as  this  supreme  cause  of  all  transcends 
other  causes.  For,  according  to  Plato,  the 
highest  God,  whom  in  the  Republic  he  calls 

1  Complete  Works,  VIII.,  50. 

2  Ibid.,  V.,  295. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM          9 

the  good,  and  in  the  Parmenides  the  one,  is 
not  only  above  soul  and  intellect,  but  is  even 
superior  to  being  itself.  Hence,  since  every 
thing  which  can  in  any  respect  be  known,  or 
of  which  anything  can  be  asserted,  must  be 
connected  with  the  universality  of  things,  but 
the  first  cause  is  above  all  things,  it  is  very 
properly  said  by  Plato  to  be  perfectly  ineffa 
ble.  The  first  hypothesis  therefore  of  his 
Parmenides,  in  which  all  things  are  denied  of 
this  immense  principle,  concludes  as  follows: 
'The  one  therefore  is  in  no  respect.  So  it 
seems.  Hence  it  is  not  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
be  one,  for  thus  it  would  be  being,  and  partici 
pate  of  essence:  but  as  it  appears,  the  one 
neither  is  one,  nor  is,  if  it  be  proper  to  believe 
in  reasoning  of  this  kind.  It  appears  so.  But 
can  anything  either  belong  to,  or  be  affirmed 
of  that  which  is  not?  How  can  it?  Neither 
therefore  does  any  name  belong  to  it,  nor  dis 
course,  nor  any  science,  nor  sense,  nor  opinion. 
It  does  not  appear  that  there  can.  Hence  it 
can  neither  be  named,  nor  spoken  of,  nor  con 
ceived  by  opinion,  nor  be  known,  nor  per 
ceived  by  any  being.  So  it  seems.'  "  1 

Emerson  follows  this  manner  of  reviewing 

1  The   Works  of  Plato,  translated  by  Thomas  Taylor,   I., 
Introduction,  p.  5. 


io    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Plato's  system.  In  his  essay  on  Plato  he  thus 
sets  forth  Plato's  conception  of  the  highest 
postulate  of  thought:  "Plato  apprehended 
the  cardinal  facts.  He  could  prostrate  him 
self  on  the  earth  and  cover  his  eyes  whilst  he 
adored  that  which  cannot  be  numbered,  or 
gauged,  or  known,  or  named;  that  of  which 
everything  can  be  affirmed  and  denied;  that 
'which  is  entity  and  nonentity.'  He  called  it 
super-essential.  He  even  stood  ready,  as  in 
the  Parmenides,  to  demonstrate  that  it  was  so 
— that  this  Being  exceeded  the  limits  of  intel 
lect.  No  man  ever  more  fully  acknowledged 
the  Ineffable." ' 

Modern  criticism  does  not  accept  this  view 
of  the  Parmenides.  Scholars  no  longer  in 
terpret  Plato  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Neo- 
Platonists.  They  consider  the  Parmenides 
either  as  a  dialectical  exercise  or  as  a  subtle 
attempt  of  Plato  to  criticise  the  earlier  Eleatic 
philosophy  from  the  standpoint  of  Zeno.2 
Consequently  they  do  not  co-ordinate  the  con 
ception  of  the  One  given  in  the  Parmenides 
with  the  idea  of  the  Good  as  elaborated  in  the 
Republic.  Into  the  soundness  or  weakness  of 

1  Complete  Works,  IV.,  61. 

2  The  Dialogues  of  Plato,  translated  by   B.  Jowett,   III., 
225,  227. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        11 

such  interpretation  it  is  not  necessary  here  to 
enter;  it  is  sufficient  to  appreciate  the  differ 
ence  and  to  point  out  Emerson's  adherence 
to  the  older  school  of  criticism. 

In  contrast  to  this  idea  of  an  ineffable  unity 
of  things  Emerson  places  the  conception  of  a 
dialectic,  the  aim  of  which  is  to  give  scien 
tific  knowledge;  and  this  dialectic  he  main 
tains  Plato  elaborated.  Thus  his  exposition 
goes  on  to  say:  "Having  paid  his  homage, 
as  for  the  human  race,  to  the  Illimitable,  he 
(Plato)  then  stood  erect,  and  for  the  human 
race  affirmed,  'And  yet  things  are  knowableP 
— that  is,  the  Asia  in  his  mind  was  first  heart 
ily  honored — the  ocean  of  love  and  power, 
before  form,  before  will,  before  knowledge, 
the  Same,  the  Good,  the  One;  and  now,  re 
freshed  and  empowered  by  this  worship,  the 
instinct  of  Europe,  namely,  culture,  returns; 
and  he  cries,  'Yet  things  are  knowable!' 
They  are  knowable,  because  being  from  one, 
things  correspond.  There  is  a  scale;  and  the 
correspondence  of  heaven  to  earth,  of  matter 
to  mind,  of  the  part  to  the  whole,  is  our  guide. 
As  there  is  a  science  of  stars,  called  astron 
omy;  a  science  of  quantities,  called  mathe 
matics  ;  a  science  of  qualities,  called  chemis 
try;  so  there  is  a  science  of  sciences — I  call  it 


12    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Dialectic — which  is  the  Intellect  discrimi 
nating  the  false  and  the  true.  It  rests  on  the 
observation  of  identity  and  diversity;  for  to 
judge  is  to  unite  to  an  object  the  notion  which 
belongs  to  it."  1 

This  is  a  doctrine  of  the  Republic  and  truth 
fully  reflects  Plato's  work.  The  Neo-Pla- 
tonists  of  course  accepted  it  and  worked  it 
into  their  mystical  scheme  although  they  held 
to  the  former  idea  of  an  ineffable  One  as  the 
superior  conception.  That  is,  in  Neo-Pla- 
tonism  one  finds  a  mystical  system  arising  out 
of  an  idealistic  philosophy.  The  conception 
of  a  science  based  on  the  knowledge  of  ideas 
gave  them  idealism  and  truthfully  reflected 
Plato.  The  conception  of  an  ineffable  unity 
of  things  above  all  knowledge  necessitated  a 
mysticism;  and  this  they  professed  to  find  in 
Plato.  Such  criticism  Emerson  accepted  and 
hence  the  strong  Neo-Platonic  strain  in  his  ap 
preciation  of  Platonism. 

Emerson's  Platonism  is  broad  enough,  too, 
to  take  in  not  only  the  Neo-Platonists  but  also 
the  earlier  thinkers  of  Greece  from  Thales  on 
who  antedate  the  appearance  of  Plato.  In 
these  thinkers  he  found  a  crude  symbolical 

1  Complete  Works,  IV.,  62. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        13 

explanation  of  the  absolute  cause  of  things 
which  Neo-Platonism  had  taught  him  to  con 
sider  above  all  knowledge.  "The  baffled  in 
tellect,"  he  says,  "must  still  kneel  before  this 
cause,  which  refuses  to  be  named — ineffable 
cause,  which  every  fine  genius  has  essayed  to 
represent  by  some  emphatic  symbol,  as,  Thales 
by  water,  Anaximines  by  air,  Anaxagoras  by 
(NOVS)  thought,  Zoroaster  by  fire,  Jesus  and 
the  moderns  by  love;  and  the  metaphor  of 
each  has  become  a  national  religion."  1 

Plato  when  viewed  in  connection  with  these 
earlier  Greek  speculators  is  considered  by 
Emerson  as  the  perfect  expression  of  that 
which  they  but  inadequately  stated ;  he  gave  a 
scientific  account  of  what  had  before  been 
uttered  symbolically.  "Before  Pericles  came 
the  Seven  Wise  Masters,"  he  writes,  "and  we 
have  the  beginnings  of  geometry,  metaphysics 
and  ethics;  then  the  partialists — deducing 
the  origin  of  things  from  flux  or  water,  or 
from  air,  or  from  fire,  or  from  mind.  All 
mix  with  these  causes  mythologic  pictures. 
At  last  comes  Plato,  the  distributor,  who  needs 
no  barbaric  paint,  or  tattoo,  or  whooping;  for 
he  can  define.  He  leaves  with  Asia  the  vast 

1  Complete  Works,  III.,  72-73. 


H    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

and  superlative;  he  is  the  arrival  of  accuracy 
and  intelligence.  'He  shall  be  as  a  god  to 
me,  who  can  rightly  divide  and  define.'  "  l 

In  thus  estimating  the  place  of  this  early 
speculation  in  the  evolution  of  Greek  thought 
Emerson  was  developing  to  its  utmost  a  prac 
tice  of  Plato  and  the  Platonists.  In  both  are 
found  open  critiques  of  the  earlier  philoso 
phers.  In  Plotinus  there  is  frequent  refer 
ence  to  the  ancients  and  no  opportunity  is  lost 
by  Proclus  to  identify  the  teaching  of  the 
early  schools  with  Platonism.  And  in  Plato 
Emerson  found  a  criticism  that  set  the  old 
thought  in  vivid  contrast  to  Plato's  own  con 
ceptions.  In  the  Sophist  the  main  speaker  re 
views  the  preceding  philosophers  and  declares 
that  "each  of  them  has  related  a  fable  to  us,  as 
being  boys."  2  This  is  the  identical  position 
that  Emerson  takes  regarding  the  early  Hel 
lenic  thinkers. 

Into  the  thought  of  these  Greek  thinkers 
before  Plato,  Emerson  was  curious  to  inquire. 
In  Plutarch's  Morals  he  found  a  rich  mine 
of  quotation  and  comment  in  which  the  earlier 
Greek  philosophers  figure  conspicuously. 

*  Ibid.,  IV.,  47- 

2  The  Works  of  Plato,  translated  by  Thomas  Taylor,  III., 
240. 


or  THE 
(  UNIVERSITY   / 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        15 

"Plutarch  occupies  a  unique  place  in  liter 
ature,"  Emerson  writes,  "as  an  encyclopaedia 
of  Greek  and  Roman  antiquity.  Whatever  is 
eminent  in  fact  or  in  fiction,  in  opinion,  in 
character,  in  institutions,  in  science — natural, 
moral  or  metaphysical — or  in  memorable 
sayings,  drew  his  attention  and  came  to  his 
pen  with  more  or  less  fulness  of  record.  He 
is,  among  prose  writers,  what  Chaucer  is 
among  English  poets,  a  repertory  for  those 
who  want  the  story  without  searching  for  it 
at  first  hand — a  compend  of  all  accepted  tra 
ditions."  1  In  the  English  Cudworth,  too, ' 
Emerson  found  many  fragments  of  ancient 
thought.  The  work  of  this  Cambridge  Pla- 
tonist  of  the  seventeenth  century — The  True 
Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe — was  per 
haps  the  first  book  to  draw  Emerson's  atten 
tion  to  Platonism.2  He  read  it  for  the  "cita 
tions  from  Plato  and  the  philosophers," 3 
but  found  the  body  of  the  work  dull  reading, 
relieved  only  by  the  "magazine  of  quotations, 
of  extraordinary  ethical  sentences,  the  shining 
summits  of  ancient  philosophy."  4  Emerson 

1  Complete  Works,  X.,  297. 

2  Ibid.,  IV,  294. 

3  Ibid. 
*/&«/.,  X.,  516. 


16    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

was  also  sufficiently  interested  in  the  early 
Greek  thinkers  to  study  their  systems  as  they 
were  outlined  in  De  Gerando's  Histoire  Com- 
paree  des  Systemes  de  Philosophic  (1822). 

These  three  sources,  Plutarch,  Cudworth 
and  De  Gerando,  were  in  Emerson's  library. 
Plutarch  and  Cudworth  were  great  favorites 
with  Emerson;  and  Plutarch  was  of  value  to 
him  other  than  as  a  preserver  of  fragments  of 
ancient  thought.  His  interpretation  of  cer 
tain  phases  of  Platonism  was  very  acceptable 
to  Emerson.  And  yet  it  was  the  miscella 
neous  character  of  Plutarch  that  Emerson  as 
sociated  with  his  work.  "I  confess  that,  in 
reading  him,  I  embrace  the  particulars,  and 
carry  a  faint  memory  of  the  argument  or  gen 
eral  design  of  the  chapter;  but  he  is  not  less 
welcome,  and  he  leaves  the  reader  with  a  rel 
ish  and  a  necessity  for  completing  his 
studies."  1  Plutarch  and  Plato  are  the  only 
two  of  the  ancient  philosophers  whom  Emer 
son  dignified  by  special  treatment.  Plato  has 
the  first  place  as  philosopher  in  his  Repre 
sentative  Men  and  for  Goodwin's  edition  of 
Plutarch's  Morals  (1871)  Emerson  wrote  an 
introduction.  His  own  copy  of  Plutarch  was 

d.,  X.,  303-304. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        17 

the  fifth  London  edition  translated  by  several 
hands  and  published  in  1718. 

Pythagoreanism  is  the  most  conspicuous 
phase  of  ancient  Greek  thought  antecedent  to 
Plato  which  Emerson  blends  with  his  con 
ception  of  Platonism.  According  to  the 
Pythagoreans  the  universe  is  a  harmony  of 
antagonizing  opposites,  of  which  they  gave  a 
series  of  ten:  limited  and  unlimited;  odd  and 
even ;  one  and  many;  right  and  left;  masculine 
and  feminine;  rest  and  motion;  straight  and 
crooked;  light  and  darkness;  good  and  evil; 
square  and  oblong.  The  series  is  an  arbitrary 
mingling  of  mathematical,  physical  and  eth 
ical  contrasts  and  is  a  deduction  from  their 
primary  theory  that  number  is  the  principle 
of  things. 

A  trace  of  this  way  of  looking  at  the  consti 
tution  of  the  universe  is  found  in  Emerson's 
exposition  of  Plato's  teaching.  Plato's  rec 
ognition  of  the  ineffable  unity  of  things,  so 
Emerson  holds,  is  grounded  on  the  cardinal 
fact  that  unity,  or  identity,  lies  forever  at  the 
base  of  things.  Along  with  it  is  the  second 
fundamental  conception,  variety.  "If  specu 
lation,"  he  says,  "tends  thus  to  a  terrific  unity, 
in  which  all  things  are  absorbed,  action  tends 


i8    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

directly  backwards  to  diversity.  The  first  is 
the  course  or  gravitation  of  mind;  the  second 
is  the  power  of  nature.  Nature  is  the  mani 
fold.  The  unity  absorbs,  and  melts  or  re 
duces.  Nature  opens  and  creates.  These 
two  principles  reappear  and  interpenetrate 
all  things,  all  thought;  the  one,  the  many. 
One  is  being;  the  other,  intellect:  one  is  neces 
sity;  the  other  freedom:  one,  rest;  the  other, 
motion:  one,  power;  the  other,  distribution: 
one,  strength;  the  other,  pleasure:  one,  con 
sciousness;  the  other,  definition:  one,  genius; 
the  other,  talent:  one,  earnestness;  the  other, 
knowledge:  one,  possession;  the  other,  trade: 
one,  caste;  the  other,  culture:  one,  king;  the 
other,  democracy:  and,  if  we  dare  carry  these 
generalizations  a  step  higher,  and  name  the 
last  tendency  of  both,  we  might  say,  that  the 
end  of  the  one  is  escape  from  organization — 
pure  science;  and  the  end  of  the  other  is  the 
highest  instrumentality,  or  use  of  means,  or 
executive  deity."  1  In  such  a  catalogue  the 
arbitrary  balancing  of  opposites  is  quite  in 
keeping  with  the  Pythagorean  series. 

Emerson  found  authority  for  thus  devel 
oping  Plato's  philosophy  in  the  critical  atti 
tude  of  the  Platonists  toward  Pythagorean 

1  Complete  Works,  IV.,  51-52. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        19 

notions.  To  the  Platonists  Pythagoras  was  an 
important  name  in  the  history  of  Hellenic 
thought.  "The  mathematical  disciplines," 
says  Taylor  in  his  introductory  remarks  on 
Plato,  "were  invented  by  the  Pythagoreans, 
in  order  to  a  reminiscence  of  divine  concerns, 
to  which  through  these  as  images,  they  en 
deavor  to  ascend."  1  Plato,  he  adds,  teaches 
the  same  things  through  science.  Such  a  view 
reflects  the  critical  manner  of  Proclus.  It  is 
Pythagoric,  according  to  him,  to  signify 
divine  concerns  through  images.2  And  in  his 
Commentaries  on  the  Timceus  of  Plato  he 
allegorizes  Plato's  account  of  the  ancient  war 
between  the  Atlantics  and  the  Athenians  in 
agreement  with  the  Pythagorean  notion  of  the 
antagonism  of  elements  constituting  the  uni 
verse.  Taylor  summarizing  the  account 
states  that  such  a  view  is  doubtless  to  be  pre 
ferred,  as  more  consistent  with  the  nature  of 
the  dialogue,  for  it  refers  the  story  of  the  At 
lantic  war  "to  the  opposition  perpetually 
flourishing  in  the  universe  between  unity  and 
multitude,  bound  and  infinity,  sameness  and 
difference,  motion  and  permanency,  from 

1  The   Works  of  Plato,  translated  by  Thomas  Taylor,  I., 
General  Introduction,  p.  37. 

2  Ibid. 


20    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

which  all  things,  the  first  cause  being  excepted, 
are  composed."  1 

Emerson  had  consulted  De  Gerando's  His- 
toire  Comparee  des  Systemes  de  Philosophic 
for  a  knowledge  of  Pythagorean  beliefs  and 
he  had  found  there  an  account  of  the  series 
of  elements  comprising  the  universe.  The 
idea  was  at  once  taken  up,  for  it  chimed  in 
with  a  favorite  way  of  looking  at  things  even 
from  boyhood  when  "he  pleased  himself  as  he 
lay  on  his  bed  with  the  beauty  of  the  Lord's 
equilibrium  in  the  Universe."2 

His  reading  in  Cousin,  however,  may  have 
had  the  effect  of  clinching  this  idea  so  that  it 
became  a  fixed  one  in  his  mind  as  he  con 
tinued  his  study  of  the  Platonists.  Emerson 
tells  us  in  1833  that  he  had  been  reading 
Cousin's  lectures  and  he  must  have  known 
them  in  a  translation,  an  Introduction  to  the 
History  of  Philosophy,  made  by  H.  G.  Lin- 
berg  (i832).3  In  this  work  Cousin  explains 
the  categories  of  the  reason  and  shows  how  all 
propositions  are  reduced  to  one  proposition; 
"that  is,  to  the  opposition  between  unity  and 
plurality,  substance  and  phenomenon,  being 

1  Ibid.,  II.,  432-433- 

2  Complete  Works,  I.,  Biographical  Sketch,  p.  39. 
s /&«/.,  V.,  21. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        21 

and  appearance,  identity  and  difference,  and 
the  like."  l  The  relation  of  unity  and  multi 
plicity  he  dwells  upon  at  some  length.  He 
explains  that  these  two  fundamental  ideas  are 
"two  ideas  contemporaneous  in  reason;  two, 
which  reason  cannot  be  without,  and  which 
moreover  arrive  at  the  same  time."  2  One 
cannot  be  conceived  —  he  adds  —  without  the 
other. 

It  is  in  the  same  strain  that  Emerson 
speaks.  "We  unite  all  things  by  perceiving 
the  law  that  pervades  them;  by  perceiving 
the  superficial  differences  and  the  profound 
resemblances.  But  every  mental  act  —  this 
very  perception  of  identity  or  oneness,  recog 
nizes  the  difference  of  things.  Oneness  and 
otherness.  It  is  impossible  to  speak  or  think 
without  embracing  both."  3 

But  whether  Emerson  is  indebted  to  Cousin 
or  not,  his  fondness  for  balancing  antagoniz 
ing  elements  of  thought  is  a  characteristic  of 
his  interpretation  of  one  phase  of  Platonism. 
And  in  so  doing  he  was  but  following  a  habit 
of  the  Platonists  themselves.  As  in  all  his 
appropriations  from  the  philosophy  of  Plato, 


2  P.  114. 

8  Complete  Works,  IV.,  48. 


22     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

he  develops  the  idea  of  the  Pythagoreans  in 
characteristic  fashion. 

A  thir_d_si_gnjj&cant  phase  of  Emerson's  in 
terpretation  of  Platonic  doctrine  is  due  to  his 
acquaintance  with  the  writings  of  Coleridge. 
In  Coleridge's  Friend  Emerson  found  an  ac 
count  of  a  scientific  method  of  thought  which 
was  built  partly  on  the  philosophy  of  Plato 
and  partly  on  the  teaching  of  Bacon.  The 
aim  of  Coleridge's  work  in  his  own  words  was 
"to  lay  down  and  illustrate  certain  fundamen 
tal  distinctions  and  rules  of  intellectual  action, 
which,  if  well  grounded  and  thoroughly 
taken  up  and  appropriated,  will  give  to  every 
one  the  power  of  working  out,  under  any  cir 
cumstances,  the  conclusions  of  truth  for  him 
self."  1  In  pursuing  this  aim  Coleridge  had 
examined  many  systems  of  thought  and  had 
finally  ended  in  correlating  the  philosophy 
of  Bacon  with  that  of  Plato.  "Thus  the  dif 
ference,  or  rather  distinction,  between  Plato 
and  Lord  Bacon,"  Coleridge  tells  us,  "is 
simply  this:  that  philosophy  being  neces 
sarily  bipolar,  Plato  treats  principally  of  the 
truth,  as  it  manifests  itself  at  the  ideal  pole, 
as  the  science  of  intellect  (de  mundo  Intel- 

1  The  Friend.    Complete   Works  of  Samuel   Taylor  Cole 
ridge,  II.     Object  and  Plan  of  the  Work,  p.  8. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        23 

ligibili)  ;  while  Bacon  confines  himself,  for 
the  most  part,  to  the  same  truth,  as  it  is  mani 
fested  at  the  other  or  material  pole,  as  the 
science  of  nature  (de  mundo  sensibili).  It 
is  as  necessary,  therefore,  that  Plato  should 
direct  his  inquiries  chiefly  to  those  objective 
truths  that  exist  in  and  for  the  intellect  alone, 
the  images  and  representatives  of  which  we 
construct  for  ourselves  by  figure,  number,  and 
word;  as  that  Lord  Bacon  should  attach  his 
main  concern  to  the  truths  which  have  their 
-signatures  in  nature,  and  which  (as  he  him 
self  plainly  and  often  asserts)  may  indeed  be 
revealed  to  us  through  and  with,  but  never  by 
the  senses,  or  the  faculty  of  sense."  * 

Owing  to  his  acceptance  of  this  reconcili 
ation  of  Plato  and  Bacon,  Emerson  adopted, 
as  a  fixed  idea  in  all  philosophic  inquiry,  the 
correlation  of  matter  and  mind.  In  accord 
ance  with  that  idea  he  studied  Plato  and  the 
Platonists.  The  reading  of  Bacon  was  thus  a 
congenial  task  to  accompany  his  study  of 
Plato.  In  Bacon's  Advancement  of  Learning 
Emerson  found  a  conception  of  a  First  Phi 
losophy  that  easily  blended  with  Plato's  ideal 
of  speculative  inquiry.  "Bacon,  in  the  struc 
ture  of  his  mind,"  Emerson  thus  declares, 

rf.,  II.,  445- 


24    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

"held  of  the  analogists,  of  the  idealists,  or 
(as  we  popularly  say,  naming  from  the  best 
example)  Platonists."  * 

And  so  it  comes  about  that  an  inquiry  into 
the  working  of  Emerson's  mind  must  con 
sider  the  composite  character  of  the  Plato- 
nism  on  which  that  mind  was  feeding.  The 
mysticism  of  Plotinus  and  the  Neo-Platonists 
generally — Plotinus  being  the  heart  of  the 
new  school  and  the  culmination  of  all  Greek 
philosophy — the  ancient  thought  of  those 
early  Greek  philosophers  preceding  Plato, 
especially  that  of  Pythagoras — Plato  being 
considered  as  the  logical  outcome  of  their 
speculations — and  finally,  the  contention  of 
Coleridge  that  a  philosophy  of  natural  law 
such  as  Bacon's  is  the  co-ordinate  of  a  purely 
speculative  theory  of  ideas — these  are  the 
three  media  through  which  the  teachings  of 
Plato  were  studied  by  Emerson  and  it  should 
not  appear  strange  if  in  him  the  light  from 
Plato  is  somewhat  refracted.  Only  by  rec 
ognizing  the  character  of  the  sources  from 
which  Emerson  drew  his  material  can  we 
hope  to  understand  the  part  which  Platonism 
played  in  satisfying  the  needs  of  his  mind. 

A    second    consideration    which    must    be 

1  Complete  Works,  V.,  239. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        25 

borne  in  mind  in  a  right  understanding  of 
Emerson's  relation  to  Plato  and  the  Plato- 
nists  is  the  manner  of  Emerson's  reading. 
He  was  not  a  philosopher  building  up  a  sys 
tem  of  thought.  Hence  he  did  not  study  the 
sources  of  his  Platonism  as  a  professed  student 
of  that  philosophy  whose  chief  aim  is  the  un 
derstanding  of  all  the  minutiae  of  Platonic 
doctrine.  It  is  impossible  therefore  to  recon 
struct  from  Emerson's  writings  a  system  of 
Platonism;  his  mind  was  constitutionally  un 
fitted  for  the  performance  of  such  a  task. 
His  independent  spirit,  too,  forbade  such  a 
proceeding.  He  used  his  books  for  their 
service  to  his  own  spiritual  needs.  "Books 
are  the  best  of  things,  well  used;  abused, 
among  the  worst.  What  is  the  right  use? 
What  is  the  one  end  which  all  means  go  to 
effect?  They  are  for  nothing  but  to  inspire. 
I  had  better  never  see  a  book  than  to  be 
warped  by  its  attraction  clean  out  of  my  own 
orbit,  and  made  a  satellite  instead  of  a  sys 
tem."  1  And  thus  in  the  reading  of  his  Pla 
tonic  books  he  attends  only  to  those  portions 
that  appeal  to  him.  "I  think  the  Platonists 
may  be  read  for  sentences,"  he  explains, 
"though  the  reader  fails  to  grasp  the  argu- 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  89-90. 


26    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

ment  of  the  paragraph  or  chapter.  He  may 
yet  obtain  gleams  and  glimpses  of  a  more  ex 
cellent  illumination  from  their  genius,  out 
valuing  the  most  distinct  information  he  owes 
to  other  books.  For  I  hold  that  the  grandeur 
of  the  impression  the  stars  and  heavenly  bodies 
make  on  us  is  surely  more  valuable  than  our 
exact  perception  of  a  tub  or  a  table  on  the 
ground."  1  And  yet  such  reading  is  not  like 
the  reading  in  the  books  he  describes  by  the 
term  Vocabularies,  such  as  Burton's  Anatomy 
of  Melancholy.  In  such  a  book  he  occasion 
ally  found  a  fine  sentence  but  "no  high 
method,  no  inspiring  efflux." 2  And  so  in 
characterizing  his  manner  of  reading  in  the 
Platonists  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  he 
read  sympathetically  enough  to  catch  the 
spirit  of  Platonism,  even  though  he  never 
mastered  his  sources  as  a  professed  student 
would  have  done. 

It  was  also  Emerson's  habit  to  index  his 
books  and  to  mark  the  places  which  held  his 
attention.  Of  course  these  indices  are  not  ex 
haustive,  for  they  were  intended  for  his  own 
personal  reference.  But  they  are  very  val 
uable  in  indicating  the  exact  passages  in  his 

1  Ibid.,  VII.,  409. 

2  Ibid.,  VIL,  211. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        27 

sources  in  which  he  found  his  "lustres." 
Along  with  the  marginal  markings  they  show 
how  curious  his  reading  was,  for  they  lead 
one  into  footnotes,  introductions,  and  ap 
pendices,  from  all  of  which  he  gathered  ma 
terial  for  some  of  his  most  distinctive  work. 
An  examination  of  the  marked  passages  alone 
would  indicate  a  lively  interest  on  his  part  in 
the  matters  they  discuss,  but  when  they  are 
studied  in  the  light  of  his  critical  attitude  to 
ward  Platonism  they  appear  as  veritable 
sources  of  his  thought. 

Emerson  is  specific,  too,  in  explaining  the 
peculiar  influence  which  the  Platonists  ex 
erted  upon  him.  They  were  an  intellectual 
tonic.  At  the  close  of  his  essay,  Intellect,  he 
pays  the  following  tribute  to  these  writers: 
"I  cannot  recite,  even  thus  rudely,  laws  of  the 
intellect,  without  remembering  that  lofty  and 
sequestered  class  who  have  been  its  prophets 
and  oracles,  the  high-priesthood  of  the  pure 
reason,  the  Trismegisti,  the  expounders  of  the 
principles  of  thought  from  age  to  age.  When 
at  long  intervals  we  turn  over  these  abstruse 
pages,  wonderful  seems  the  calm  and  grand  air 
of  these  few,  these  great  spiritual  lords  who 
have  walked  in  the  world  —  these  of  the  old  re 
ligion  —  dwelling  in  a  worship  which  makes 

' 


or  THE 
UNIVERSITY 

or 

ILIR 


28    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

the  sanctities  of  Christianity  look  parvenues 
and  popular;  for  'persuasion  is  in  soul,  but 
necessity  is  in  intellect.'  This  band  of  gran 
dees,  Hermes,  Heraclitus,  Empedocles,  Plato, 
Plotinus,  Olympiodorus,  Proclus,  Synesius 
and  the  rest,  have  somewhat  so  vast  in  their 
logic,  so  primary  in  their  thinking,  that  it 
seems  antecedent  to  all  the  ordinary  distinc 
tions  of  rhetoric  and  literature,  and  to  be  at 
once  poetry  and  music  and  dancing  and  as 
tronomy  and  mathematics.  I  am  present  at 
the  sowing  of  the  seed  of  the  world.  With  a 
geometry  of  sunbeams  the  soul  lays  the  foun 
dations  of  nature.  The  truth  and  grandeur  of 
their  thought  is  proved  by  its  scope  and  ap 
plicability,  for  it  commands  the  entire 
schedule  and  inventory  of  things  for  its  illus 
tration."  l 

Emerson  also  found  a  stimulant  to  the 
imagination  in  reading  these  writers.  "The 
imaginative  scholar,"  he  writes  in  his  essay, 
Books,  "will  find  few  stimulants  to  his  brain 
like  these  writers.  He  has  entered  the 
Elysian  Fields;  and  the  grand  and  pleasing 
figures  of  gods  and  daemons  and  daemoni- 
acal  men,  of  the  'azonic'  and  the  'aquatic 
gods/  daemons  with  fulgid  eyes,  and  all  the 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  345,  346. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        29 

rest  of  the  Platonic  rhetoric,  exalted  a  little 
under  the  African  sun,  sail  before  his  eyes. 
The  acolyte  has  mounted  the  tripod  over  the 
cave  at  Delphi;  his  heart  dances,  his  sight  is 
quickened.  These  guides  speak  of  the  gods 
with  such  depth  and  with  such  pictorial  de 
tails,  as  if  they  had  been  bodily  present  at  the 
Olympian  feasts.  The  reader  of  these  books 
makes  new  acquaintance  with  his  own  mind ; 
new  regions  of  thought  are  opened."  1 

Plato  does  not  seem  to  have  dazzled  Emer 
son  in  the  way  in  which  his  brilliant  friends, 
the  Neo-Platonists  did.  "Plato  is  a  gowns 
man,"  he  writes ;  "his  garment,  though  of  pur 
ple,  and  almost  sky-woven,  is  an  academic 
robe  and  hinders  action  with  its  voluminous 
folds."  2  Again  he  says  of  Plato,  "He  never 
writes  in  ecstasy,  or  catches  us  up  into  poetic 
raptures." 3  And  yet  the  reading  of  Plato 
was  at  times  a  most  solemn  event  in  Emer 
son's  life.  He  told  one  friend  that  it  was  a 
great  day  in  a  man's  life  when  he  first  read  the 
Symposium.4'  Again,  he  explains  that  "the 
scholar  must  look  long  for  the  right  hour  for 

1  Ibid.,  VII.,  203. 

2  Ibid.,  IV.,  123. 

3  Ibid.,  IV.,  61. 

.,  IV.,  307. 


30    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Plato's  Timaeus.  At  last  the  elect  morning 
arrives,  the  early  dawn — a  few  lights  con 
spicuous  in  the  heaven,  as  of  a  world  just 
created  and  still  becoming — and  in  its  wide 
leisures  we  dare  open  that  book."  *  And  to 
Carlyle  he  writes :  "I  had  it  fully  in  my  heart 
to  write  at  large  leisure  in  noble  mornings, 
opened  by  prayer,  or  by  readings  of  Plato  or 
whomsoever  else  is  dearest  to  the  Morning 
Muse."  2  Plato,  then,  though  not  so  dazzling 
a  power  over  his  mind  and  imagination  as  the 
Neo-Platonists,  was  still  a  great  inspiration. 
The  qualifying  language  which  he  uses  in 
speaking  of  him  is  due  to  the  fact  that  as  con 
trasted  with  the  Platonists,  Plato  lacks  the 
ecstasy  in  which  Neo-Platonism  as  a  system 
of  mysticism  lives  and  moves  and  has  its  being. 
More  evidence  of  like  nature  to  that  already 
adduced  can  be  found  in  Emerson's  utter 
ances  but  sufficient  has  been  given  to  justify 
the  belief  in  the  importance  of  Platonism  as 
a  molding  power  in  Emerson's  thinking. 
By  approaching  his  work  and  his  Platonic 
sources  in  the  spirit  in  which  he  himself  came 
to  the  task  one  is  able  to  come  to  a  fair  notion 

*Ibid.,  VII.,  169-170. 

2  The  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Carlyle  and  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  II.,  2. 


EMERSON'S  PLATONISM        31 

of  his  indebtedness  to  Plato  and  his  school. 
And  although  one  can  not  reconstruct  a  co 
ordinated  scheme  of  Platonism  from  Emer 
son's  work,  one  need  not  accept  the  view  of 
Cabot,  his  biographer  and  friend,  who  writes: 
uln  general,  to  look  for  the  source  of  any  way 
of  thinking  of  his  in  the  Neo-Platonists,  or  in 
any  of  the  books  he  read,  seems  to  me  like 
tracing  the  origin  of  Jacob  Behmen's  illumi 
nation  to  the  glitter  of  the  pewter  tankard 
which,  he  says,  awakened  in  him  the  con 
sciousness  of  divine  things." 1  The  golden 
way  lies  somewhere  between  this  negation  and 
the  other;  only  on  a  careful  analysis  of  his 
work  will  the  way  be  revealed. 

1 A  Memoir  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  L,  291. 


CHAPTER  II 

NATURE 

THE  dualism  in  which  the  speculation  of 
the  Platonists  culminates  underlies  Em 
erson's  conception  of  the  constitution  of  things. 
"What  the  world  ends  in,  therefore,"  writes 
Plotinus,  "is  matter  and  reason,  but  that  from 
which  it  arose,  and  by  which  it  is  governed, 
is  soul."  1  In  similar  strain  Emerson  opens 
his  exposition  of  the  nature  of  the  universe 
with  the  statement  that  "philosophically  con 
sidered,  the  universe  is  composed  of  Nature 
and  the  Soul."  2  These  two  elements — na 
ture  and  soul — are  the  poles  of  Emerson's 
thought  as  a  philosopher  concerned  with  the 
ultimate  postulates  of  thinking.  Nature  was 
the  first  topic  that  engaged  his  attention,  al 
though  his  final  word  on  the  subject  was  not 
spoken  until  he  had  elaborated  his  conception 
of  soul. 

In  his  Platonic  sources  there  was  a  wealth 

1  Five  Books  of  Plotinus,  123. 

2  Complete  Works,  L,  4. 

32 


NATURE  33 

of  speculation  on  nature.  Plato  himself  had 
left  in  his  Timceus  an  account  of  natural  phi 
losophy  of  which  the  portion  dealing  with  the 
conception  of  matter,  or  space,  became  of 
prime  importance  to  Plotinus  in  his  specula 
tion  on  the  same  subject.  In  the  third  selec 
tion  from  Plotinus'  Enneads  contained  in 
Taylor's  translation  of  the  Select  Works, 
Emerson  found  a  full  outline  of  the  position 
of  Plotinus  on  this  great  topic.  Proclus,  too, 
had  reviewed  the  subject  as  it  was  handled  by 
the  chief  Greek  thinkers  and  the  passage  con 
taining  his  account  Emerson  had  indexed 
under  "Nature"  in  his  own  copy  of  The  Com 
mentaries  of  Proclus  on  the  Timceus  of 
Plato.1  Plutarch  had  embodied  a  mass  of 
opinion  on  nature  in  his  Morals.2  Emer 
son  did  not  esteem  the  bulk  of  these  opinions 
very  highly;  he  thought  them  very  crude; 
many  of  them  puerile.  But,  he  fails  not  to 
add,  "Usually,  when  Thales,  Anaximenes  or 
Anaximander  are  quoted,  it  is  really  a  good 
judgment."  3  In  Ocellus  Lucanus,  Emerson 
had  a  short  treatise  on  the  nature  of  the  uni 
verse.  And  finally  in  Cudworth  he  found  a 

1 1.,  8-10. 

2  Morals,  III.,   104-193. 

3  Complete  Works,  X.,  310. 


34    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Digression  Concerning  the  Plastic  Life  of 
Nature,  or  an  Artificial,  Orderly  and  Me 
thodical  Nature.1 

From  this  Digression  Emerson  extracted  a 
quotation  from  Plotinus  which  he  used  as  a 
motto  for  the  first  edition  of  Nature.  "Na 
ture  is  but  an  image  or  imitation  of  wisdom, 
the  last  thing  of  the  soul;  Nature  being  a 
thing  which  doth  only  do,  but  not  know."  2 
The  original  extract  from  Cudworth  which 
yielded  Emerson  his  sentence  reads:  "How 
doth  wisdom  differ  from  that  which  is  called 
nature?  Verily  in  this  manner,  that  wisdom 
is  the  first  thing,  but  nature  the  last  and  low 
est;  for  nature  is  but  an  image  or  imitation 
of  wisdom,  the  last  thing  of  the  soul,  which 
hath  the  lowest  impress  of  reason  shining  upon 
it;  as  when  a  thick  piece  of  wax  is  thoroughly 
impressed  upon  by  a  seal,  that  impress,  which 
is  clean  and  distinct  in  the  superior  super 
ficies  of  it,  will  in  the  lower  side  be  weak 
and  obscure;  and  such  is  the  stamp  and  signa 
ture  of  nature,  compared  with  that  of  wisdom 
and  understanding,  nature  being  a  thing 
which  doth  only  do,  but  not  know."  3  Later 

1  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the   Universe,  I.,  217- 
280. 

2  Complete  Works,  I.,  403-404. 

3  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  I.,  240. 


NATURE  35 

editions  of  Nature  appeared  without  this 
motto;  but  the  firstling  of  Emerson's  mind 
nevertheless  testifies  to  its  author's  indebted 
ness  to  Platonism. 

In  the  quotation  from  Plotinus  is  found  the 
conception  which  characterizes  one  phase  of 
Emerson's  treatment  of  Nature.  This  phase 
is  given  in  his  theory  of  symbolism.  Briefly 
put,  the  theory  can  be  stated  in  three  proposi 
tions:  (i)  "Words  are  signs  of  natural 
facts."  (2)  "Particular  natural  facts  are 
symbols  of  particular  spiritual  facts."  (3) 
"Nature  is  the  symbol  of  Spirit."  1 

Each  of  these  statements  summarizes  a 
teaching  of  Platonism  with  which  Emerson's 
reading  had  made  him  familiar.  In  his 
Cratylus  Plato  sets  forth  the  notion  of  the 
philosophical  import  of  words  to  the  effect 
that  they  are  imitations  of  real  things;  or  as 
Socrates  says,  "names  properly  imposed  are 
like  the  things,  of  which  they  are  the  names 
laid  down,  and  are  resemblances  of  the 
things."  2  Here  is  the  source  of  Emerson's 
teaching  of  the  symbolic  nature  of  words. 

The  symbolism  of  things  is  a  recognized 
tenet  of  the  Platonists.  Plutarch,  especially, 

1  Complete  Works,  I..  25. 

2  Bohn  translation,  III.,  391. 


36    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

is  given  to  elucidating  the  symbolical  meaning 
of  myths,  and  in  his  essay,  Of  Isis  and  Osiris, 
busies  himself  in  unfolding  the  philosophical 
import  of  the  rites  of  the  ancient  Egyptians. 
In  doing  so  he  justifies  himself  by  an  appeal 
to  the  method  of  the  Pythagoreans.  "If, 
therefore,"  he  urges,  "the  most  approved  of 
the  philosophers  did  not  think  meet  to  pass 
over  or  disesteem  any  significant  symbol  of 
the  Divinity  which  they  observed  even  in 
things  that  had  neither  soul  nor  body,  I  be 
lieve  they  regarded  yet  more  those  properties 
of  government  and  conduct  which  they  saw 
in  such  natures  as  had  sense,  and  were  endued 
with  soul,  with  passion,  and  with  moral 
temper.  We  are  not,  therefore,  to  content 
ourselves  with  worshipping  these  things,  but 
we  must  worship  God  through  them — as 
being  the  more  clear  mirrors  of  him,  and  pro 
duced  by  Nature — so  as  ever  worthily  to 
conceive  of  them  as  instruments  or  artifices 
of  that  God  which  orders  all  things."  * 

So,  too,  do  Emerson  and  the  Platonists 
agree  in  the  most  universal  form  of  statement 
— namely,  that  nature  is  the  symbol  of  spirit. 
In  the  Timceus  of  Plato  the  Creator  is  repre- 

1  Morals,  IV.,   134. 


NATURE  37 

sented  as  fabricating  the  world  after  an 
eternal,  intelligible  pattern  of  which  this 
world  becomes  an  image.  "To  discover,  then, 
the  Creator  and  Father  of  this  universe,"  says 
the  Timceus,  "as  well  as  his  work,  is  indeed 
difficult;  and  when  discovered,  it  is  impossi 
ble  to  reveal  him  to  mankind  at  large.  And 
this,  too,  we  must  consider  respecting  him, 
according  to  which  of  two  patterns  he  mod 
elled  the  world;  whether  with  reference  to 
one  subsisting  ever  in  a  state  of  sameness  and 
similarly  affected,  or  with  reference  to  one 
that  is  only  generated.  If  this  world  then 
is  beautiful  and  its  artificer  good,  he  evidently 
looked  to  an  eternal  pattern,  but  if  it  be  with 
out  beauty,  and  what  it  is  not  lawful  to  men 
tion,  he  must  have  looked  to  one  that  is 
generated.  It  is  evident,  however,  to  every 
one  that  he  looked  to  one  that  was  eternal; 
for  the  universe  is  the  most  beautiful  of  gen 
erated  things,  and  its  artificer  the  best  of 
causes.  Being  thus  generated,  then,  it  has 
been  framed  according  to  principles  that  can 
be  comprehended  by  reason  and  reflection, 
and  ever  abides  in  sameness  of  being."  1 
Stated  in  the  language  of  Emerson  this  idea 

1  Bohn  translation,  II.,  332-333- 


38    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

underlies  the  third  proposition  of  his  sym 
bolical  teaching,  namely,  that  nature  is  a  sym 
bol  of  spirit. 

Thus  far  the  universe  has  been  viewed  as  it 
is  seen  manifested  in  space,  or  in  its  material 
phase;  but  Plato's  speculation  attended  to  it 
as  it  appears  under  the  aspect  of  time.  And 
just  as  the  substance  of  the  world  has  a  spirit 
ual  counterpart,  so  the  world  in  time  is  re 
lated  to  a  spiritual  reality,  called  eternity. 
Thus  Plato  speaks  of  the  world:  "When  the 
parent  Creator  perceived  that  this  created 
image  of  the  eternal  gods  had  life  and  mo 
tion,  he  was  delighted  with  his  work,  and  by 
this  very  delight  he  was  led  to  consider  how 
he  might  make  it  still  more  to  resemble  its 
exemplar.  Hence,  as  the  intelligible  universe 
was  an  eternal  animal,  he  tried  to  make  this 
[the  sensible  universe],  as  far  as  he  could, 
similarly  perfect.  The  nature  indeed  of  the 
animal  itself  was  eternal,  and  this  nature 
could  not  be  entirely  adopted  into  anything 
subject  to  generation;  hence  God  resolved 
to  form  a  certain  movable  image  of  eternity; 
and  thus,  while  he  was  disposing  the  parts  of 
the  universe,  he,  out  of  that  eternity  which 
rests  in  unity,  formed  an  eternal  image  on  the 


NATURE  39 

principle  of  numbers;  and  to  this  we  give 
the  appellation  of  Time."  1 

This  conception  of  time  as  the  image  of 
eternity  Emerson  lays  down  as  the  funda 
mental  one  in  his  Lecture  on  the  Times. 
"The  Times,  as  we  say — or  the  present  aspects 
of  our  social  state,  the  Laws,  Divinity,  Natu 
ral  Science,  Agriculture,  Art,  Trade,  Letters, 
have  their  root  in  an  invisible  spiritual  real 
ity.  To  appear  in  these  aspects,  they  must 
first  exist,  or  have  some  necessary  foundation. 
Beside  all  the  small  reasons  we  assign,  there 
is  a  great  reason  for  the  existence  of  every 
extant  fact;  a  reason  which  lies  grand  and 
immovable,  often  unsuspected,  behind  it  in 
silence.  The  Times  are  the  masquerade  of 
the  Eternities;  trivial  to  the  dull,  tokens  of 
noble  and  majestic  agents  to  the  wise ;  the  re 
ceptacle  in  which  the  Past  leaves  its  history; 
the  quarry  out  of  which  the  genius  of  to-day  is 
building  up  the  Future."  2 

Symbolism  is  an  attempt  to  express  the 
spiritual  meaning  of  the  world,  to  see  in  it 
a  reflection  of  spiritual  reality.  It  is  a  theory 
that  appeals  to  the  feeling  for  art,  since  the 

1  The  Tim&us,  Bohn  translation,  II.,  340-341. 

2  Complete  Works,  I.,  259. 


40    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

world  of  things  according  to  its  teaching  be 
comes  an  imitation  of  a  spiritual  world  of 
pure  intelligence.  In  Emerson's  hands  the 
theory  assumes  a  literary  value;  and  thus  the 
end  which  nature  serves  when  viewed  sym 
bolically  is  called  by  him  language.  The 
final  use  which  he  makes  of  the  theory  does 
not  appear  in  his  Nature;  there  the  theory  is 
merely  a  stage  through  which  he  passes  in  his 
interpretation  of  the  meaning  of  the  universe. 
Later  the  same  theory  will  reappear  in  his 
conception  of  art. 

A  second  theory  of  the  meaning  of  nature  is 
based  upon  the  relation  of  the  world  of  mat 
ter  to  the  world  of  mind.  This  relation 
underlies  symbolism;  but  in  the  new  state 
ment  which  Emerson  makes  the  terms  are 
changed.  Nature  is  conceived  as  an  orderly 
system  of  laws  executing  themselves  and  mind 
is  viewed  as  an  invisible  world  in  which  ideas 
are  the  final  realities.  By  correlating  these 
two  terms,  the  laws  of  nature  and  the  ideas 
of  the  mind,  Emerson  gets  his  new  theory. 
"The  uneasiness  which  the  thought  of  our 
helplessness  in  the  chain  of  causes  occasions 
us,"  he  writes,  "results  from  looking  too  much 
at  one  condition  of  nature,  namely,  Motion. 
But  the  drag  is  never  taken  from  the  wheel. 


NATURE  41 

Wherever  the  impulse  exceeds,  the  Rest  or 
Identity  insinuates  its  compensation.  All 
over  the  wide  fields  of  earth  grows  the  pru 
nella  or  self-heal.  After  every  foolish  day 
we  sleep  off  the  fumes  and  furies  of  its  hours; 
and  though  we  are  always  engaged  with  par 
ticulars,  and  often  enslaved  to  them,  we  bring 
with  us  to  every  experiment  the  innate  uni 
versal  laws.  These,  while  they  exist  in  the 
mind  as  ideas,  stand  around  us  in  nature  for 
ever  embodied,  a  present  sanity  to  expose  and 
cure  the  insanity  of  men."  1  That  is,  laws 
of  nature  are  correlative  to  ideas  of  mind. 

In  such  a  theory  the  doctrine  of  ideas  as 
set  forth  in  Plato  is  apparent;  but  the  form 
which  the  theory  takes  in  Emerson  is  due  to 
Coleridge's  reworking  of  Plato's  theory. 
Emerson  himself  has  left  a  passage  which 
proves  this  connection  with  Plato  through 
Coleridge.  "But  the  philosopher,  not  less 
than  the  poet,"  he  explains  in  Nature,  "post 
pones  the  apparent  order  and  relations  of 
things  to  the  empire  of  thought.  'The  prob 
lem  of  philosophy/  according  to  Plato,  'is, 
for  all  that  exists  conditionally,  to  find  a 
ground  unconditioned  and  absolute.'  It  pro 
ceeds  on  the  faith  that  a  law  determines  all 

1  Complete  Works,  III.,  194-195. 


42    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

phenomena,  which  being  known,  the  phe 
nomena  can  be  predicted.  That  law,  when  in 
the  mind,  is  an  idea."  1 

The  source  of  this  quotation  is  found  in 
Coleridge's  Friend,  where  the  theory  of  cor 
relation  was  fully  stated  for  Emerson:  "The 
grand  problem,  the  solution  of  which  forms, 
according  to  Plato,  the  final  object  and  dis 
tinctive  character  of  philosophy,  is  this:  for 
all  that  exists  conditionally  (that  is,  the  ex 
istence  of  which  is  inconceivable  except  under 
the  condition  of  its  dependency  on  some  other 
as  its  antecedent)  to  find  a  ground  that  is  un 
conditional  and  absolute,  and  thereby  to 
reduce  the  aggregate  of  human  knowledge 
to  a  system.  For  the  relation  common  to  all 
being  known,  the  appropriate  orbit  of  each 
becomes  discoverable,  together  with  its  pecul 
iar  relations  to  its  concentrics  in  the  common 
sphere  of  subordination.  Thus  the  centrality 
of  the  sun  having  been  established,  and  the  law 
of  the  distances  of  the  planets  from  the  sun 
having  been  determined,  we  possess  the 
means  of  calculating  the  distance  of  each  from 
the  other.  But  as  all  objects  of  sense  are  in 
continual  flux,  and  as  the  notices  of  them  by 
the  senses  must,  as  far  as  they  are  true  notices, 

^Complete  Works,  I.,  55. 


NATURE  43 

change  with  them,  while  scientific  principles 
or  laws  are  no  otherwise  principles  of  science 
than  as  they  are  permanent  and  always  the 
same,  the  latter  were  appropriated  to  the  pure 
reason,  either  as  its  products  or  as  implanted 
in  it.  And  now  the  remarkable  fact  forces 
itself  on  our  attention,  namely,  that  the  ma 
terial  world  is  found  to  obey  the  same  laws  as 
had  been  deduced  independently  from  the 
reason;  and  that  the  masses  act  by  a  force 
which  can  not  be  conceived  to  result  from 
the  component  parts,  known  or  imaginable. 
In  magnetism,  electricity,  galvanism,  and  in 
chemistry  generally,  the  mind  is  led  instinct 
ively,  as  it  were,  to  regard  the  working  powers 
as  conducted,  transmitted,  or  accumulated  by 
the  sensible  bodies,  and  not  as  inherent.  This 
fact  has,  at  all  times,  been  the  stronghold 
alike  of  the  materialists  and  of  the  spiritual 
ists,  equally  solvable  by  the  two  contrary 
hypotheses,  and  fairly  solved  by  neither.  In 
the  clear  and  masterly  review  of  the  elder 
philosophers,  which  must  be  ranked  among 
the  most  splendid  proofs  of  his  judgment  no 
less  than  of  his  genius,  and  more  expressly  in 
the  critique  on  the  atomic  or  corpuscular  doc 
trine  of  Democritus  and  his  followers  as  the 
one  extreme,  and  in  that  of  the  pure  rational- 


44    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

ism  of  Zeno  the  Eleatic  as  the  other,  Plato 
has  proved  incontrovertibly  that  in  both  alike 
the  basis  is  too  narrow  to  support  the  super 
structure;  that  the  grounds  of  both  are  false 
or  disputable;  and  that  if  these  were  con 
ceded,  yet  neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
scheme  is  adequate  to  the  solution  of  the  prob 
lem — namely,  what  is  the  ground  of  the  coin 
cidence  between  reason  and  experience;  or 
between  the  laws  of  matter  and  the  ideas  of 
the  pure  intellect.  The  only  answer  which 
Plato  deemed  the  question  capable  of  receiv 
ing,  compels  the  reason  to  pass  out  of  itself 
and  seek  the  ground  of  this  agreement  in  a 
supersensual  essence,  which  being  at  once 
the  ideal  of  the  reason  and  the  cause  of  the 
material  world,  is  the  pre-establisher  of  the 
harmony  in  and  between  both."  * 

To  make  his  statement  clearer  Coleridge 
adds  in  a  note:  "I  now  more  especially  en 
treat  the  reader's  attention  to  the  sense  in 
which  here,  and  everywhere  through  this 
essay,  I  use  the  word  idea,  I  assert,  that  the 
very  impulse  to  universalize  any  phenomenon 
involves  the  prior  assumption  of  some  efficient 
law  in  nature,  which  in  a  thousand  different 

1  The   Friend.     The    Complete    Works   of   Samuel   Taylor 
Coleridge,  II.,  420-422. 


NATURE  45 

forms  is  evermore  one  and  the  same,  entire  in 
each,  yet  comprehending  all,  and  incapable 
of  being  abstracted  or  generalized  from  any 
number  of  phcenomena,  because  it  is  itself 
pre-supposed  in  each  and  all  as  their  common 
ground  and  condition,  and  because  every  defi 
nition  of  a  genus  is  the  adequate  definition 
of  the  lowest  species  alone,  while  the  efficient 
law  must  contain  the  ground  of  all  in  all. 
It  is  attributed,  never  derived.  The  utmost 
we  ever  venture  to  say  is,  that  the  falling  of 
an  apple  suggested  the  law  of  gravitation  to 
Sir  I.  Newton.  Now  a  law  and  an  idea  are 
correlative  terms,  and  differ  only  as  object  and 
subject,  as  being  and  truth."  1 

This  is  the  manner  in  which  Emerson  con 
siders  the  question  of  nature.  First  in  im 
portance  of  the  influences  upon  the  mind  of 
the  scholar  is  that  of  nature;  and  this  influ 
ence,  Emerson  goes  on  to  explain,  leads  the 
scholar  to  settle  upon  the  value  of  nature  to 
him,  which  is  revealed  only  when  he  begins 
to  study  her  meaning.  "Classification  be 
gins,"  Emerson  says.  "To  the  young  mind 
every  thing  is  individual,  stands  by  itself. 
By  and  by,  it  finds  how  to  join  two  things 

1  The   Friend.    The   Complete   Works   of  Samuel   Taylor 
Coleridge,  II.,  424. 


46    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

and  see  in  them  one  nature ;  then  three,  then 
three  thousand,  and  so,  tyrannized  over  by  its 
own  unifying  instinct,  it  goes  on  tying  things 
together,  diminishing  anomalies,  discovering 
roots  running  under  ground  whereby  con 
trary  and  remote  things  cohere  and  flower  out 
from  one  stem.  .  .  .  But  what  is  classifi 
cation  but  the  perceiving  that  these  objects 
are  not  chaotic,  and  are  not  foreign,  but  have 
a  law  which  is  also  a  law  of  the  human 
mind?"  1 

Such  correlation  of  nature  and  mind  is 
everywhere  present  in  Emerson's  work:  it 
is  one  of  his  fixed  ideas.  As  a  moralist  he 
sees  in  the  theory  a  proof  of  the  essentially 
ethical  character  of  all  natural  law.  On  this 
he  insists.  "The  world  is  emblematic.  Parts 
of  speech  are  metaphors,  because  the  whole 
of  nature  is  a  metaphor  of  the  human  mind. 
The  laws  of  moral  nature  answer  to  those  of 
matter  as  face  to  face  in  a  glass.  The  visible 
world  and  the  relation  of  its  parts,  is  the  dial 
plate  of  the  invisible.'  The  axioms  of  physics 
translate  the  laws  of  ethics.  Thus  'the  whole 
is  greater  than  its  part;'  'reaction  is  equal  to 
action;'  'the  smallest  weight  may  be  made  to 
lift  the  greatest,  the  difference  of  weight  be- 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  85-86. 


NATURE  47 

ing  compensated  by  time  ;'  and  many  the  like 
propositions,  which  have  an  ethical  as  well  as 
physical  sense.  These  propositions  have  a 
much  more  extensive  and  universal  sense 
when  applied  to  human  life,  than  when  con 
fined  to  technical  use."  1 

This  ethical  interpretation  of  natural  laws 
is  a  favorite  exercise  with  Emerson.  The 
specific  instances  of  the  correlation  of  mind 
and  matter  he  calls  "by-laws  of  the  mind."  a 
As  example  he  dwells  on  the  correspondence 
of  gravity  to  truth.  "The  first  quality  we 
know  in  matter,"  he  writes  in  explanation  of 
the  equivalence  of  the  soul  to  nature,  "is  cen- 
trality  —  we  call  it  gravity  —  which  holds  the 
universe  together,  which  remains  pure  and 
indestructible  in  each  mote  as  in  masses  and 
planets,  and  from  each  atom  rays  out  illimita 
ble  influence.  To  this  material  essence  an 
swers  Truth,  in  the  intellectual  world  — 
Truth,  whose  center  is  everywhere  and  its 
circumference  nowhere,  whose  existence  we 
cannot  disimagine;  the  soundness  and  health 
of  things,  against  which  no  blow  can  be  struck 
but  it  recoils  on  the  striker;  Truth,  on  whose 
side  we  always  heartily  are.  And  the  first 


rf.,  I.,  32-33. 
2  Ibid.,  XII.,  15. 


48     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

measure  of  a  mind  is  its  centrality,  its  capac 
ity  of  truth,  and  its  adhesion  to  it."  1 

Other  instances  of  analogies  between  the 
natural  and  the  moral  worlds  are  to  be  found 
in  his  paralleling  diamagnetism,  or  cross 
magnetism,  of  gases  with  a  law  of  personality 
which  he  calls  bias.2  The  chemical  rule — 
corpora  non  agunt  nisi  soluta — he  says  holds 
true  in  mind.3  In  fact,  a  long  series  of  such 
analogies  drawn  from  the  laws  of  physics  and 
vegetation  constitutes  a  considerable  part  of 
what  Emerson  loves  to  call  the  Natural  His 
tory  of  Intellect.4 

The  suggestion  to  gather  such  by-laws  of 
the  mind  arose  in  Emerson's  mind  as  a  result 
of  his  reading  in  Bacon.  Coleridge  had 
placed  Bacon  side  by  side  with  Plato  and  had 
pointed  out  the  relation  of  his  natural  phi 
losophy  to  Plato's  system  of  ideas.  Whether 
or  not  first  directed  to  Bacon  by  Coleridge, 
Emerson  certainly  used  Bacon  in  accordance 
with  Coleridge's  theory  of  correlation  and 
came  to  associate  Bacon's  philosophy  with 
that  of  Plato. 

1  Complete  Works,  VIII.,  221. 

2  Ibid.,  VIIL,  306. 

.,  XL,  533- 

.,  XII.,  23  et  sq. 


NATURE  49 

In  his  review  of  Bacon's  work  Emerson 
notes  that  Bacon  "explained  himself  by  giving 
various  quaint  examples  of  the  summary  or 
common  laws  of  which  each  science  has  its 
own  illustration."  1  This  is  a  reference  to  a 
passage  in  the  Advancement  of  Learning 
which  Bacon  cites  in  his  explanation  of  the 
province  of  a  First  Philosophy.  This  phi 
losophy  Bacon  says  is  to  be  "a  receptacle  for 
all  such  profitable  observations  and  axioms  as 
fall  not  within  the  compass  of  any  of  the 
special  parts  of  philosophy  or  sciences,  but 
are  more  common  and  of  a  higher  stage."  2 

As  instances  of  such  observations  and  ax 
ioms  he  gives  the  following:  "For  example; 
is  not  the  rule  'Si  inasqualibus  aequalia  addas, 
omnia  erunt  inaequalia,'  an  axiom  as  well  of 
justice  as  of  mathematics?  And  is  there  not 
a  true  coincidence  between  commutative  and 
distributive  justice,  and  arithmetical  and  geo 
metrical  proportion?  Is  not  that  other  rule, 
'Quae  in  eodem  tertio  conveniunt,  et  inter  se 
conveniunt,'  a  rule  taken  from  the  mathe 
matics,  but  so  potent  in  logic  as  all  syllogisms 
are  built  upon  it?  Is  not  the  observation, 
'Omnia  mutantur,  nil  interit,'  a  contempla- 


d.,  V.,  240. 
2  The  Works  of  Francis  Bacon,  II.,  126. 


50    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

tion,  in  philosophy  thus,  that  the  quantum  of 
nature  is  eternal?  in  natural  theology  thus, 
that  it  requireth  the  same  omnipotence  to 
make  somewhat  nothing,  which  at  the  first 
made  nothing  somewhat?  according  to  the 
Scripture,  'Didici  quod  omnia  opera,  quae 
fecit  Deus,  perseverunt  in  perpetuum;  non 
possumus  eis  quicquam  addere  nee  auferre.' 
Is  not  the  ground,  which  Machiavel  wisely 
and  largely  discourseth  concerning  govern 
ments,  that  the  way  to  establish  and  preserve 
them  is  to  reduce  them  (ad  principia,'  a  rule 
in  religion  and  nature,  as  well  as  in  civil  ad 
ministration?  Was  not  the  Persian  magic  a 
reduction  or  correspondence  of  the  principles 
and  architectures  of  nature  to  the  rules  and 
policy  of  government?  Is  not  the  precept  of 
a  musician,  to  fall  from  a  discord  or  harsh 
accord  upon  a  concord  or  sweet  accord,  alike 
true  in  affection?  Is  not  the  trope  of  music, 
to  avoid  or  slide  from  the  close  or  cadence, 
common  with  the  trope  of  rhetoric  of  deceiv 
ing  expectation?  Is  not  the  delight  of  the 
quavering  upon  a  stop  in  music  the  same  with 
the  playing  of  light  upon  the  water? 

'Splendet  tremulo  sub  lumine  pontus:' 


NATURE  51 

Are  not  the  organs  of  the  senses  of  one  kind 
with  the  organs  of  reflection,  the  eye  with  a 
glass,  the  ear  with  a  cave  or  strait  determined 
and  bounded?  Neither  are  those  only  simili 
tudes,  as  men  of  narrow  observation  may  con 
ceive  them  to  be,  but  the  same  footsteps  of 
nature,  treading  or  printing  upon  several 
subjects  or  matters.  This  science,  therefore, 
as  I  understand  it,  I  may  justly  report  as  de 
ficient;  for  I  see  sometimes  the  profounder 
sort  of  wits,  in  handling  some  particular 
argument,  will  now  and  then  draw  a  bucket 
of  water  out  of  this  well  for  their  present  use ; 
but  the  spring  head  thereof  seemeth  to  me 
not  to  have  been  visited;  being  of  so  excellent 
use,  both  for  the  disclosing  of  nature,  and  the 
abridgement  of  art."  1 

Emerson's  by-laws  of  the  mind  are  not  so 
quaint,  to  use  his  own  expression,  as  Bacon's, 
but  they  are  open  imitations  of  Bacon's  man 
ner.  They  show  how  fruitful  Coleridge's 
correlation  of  the  Platonic  and  Baconian  phi 
losophy  was  in  suggesting  to  Emerson  the 
practice  of  seeking  the  ethical  meaning  of  the 
laws  of  nature.  Emerson  had  no  love  of 
science  in  and  for  itself,  but  in  the  results  of 

1  The  Works  of  Francis  Bacon,  II.,  126-128. 


52    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

science  he  found  much  to  satisfy  his  spiritual 
needs  when  those  results  could  be  seen  to  have 
significance  for  morals. 

This  means  that  Emerson  held  consistently 
to  the  sovereignty  of  ethics,  by  which  he 
meant  the  supremacy  of  the  moral  or  intel 
lectual  world  over  the  world  of  outward 
nature.  Speaking  of  the  laws  of  the  natural 
world  as  perpetual  forces,  he  says:  "These 
forces  are  in  an  ascending  series,  but  seem  to 
leave  no  room  for  the  individual ;  man  or 
atom,  he  only  shares  them;  he  sails  the  way 
these  irresistible  winds  blow.  But  behind 
all  these  finer  elements,  the  sources  of  them, 
and  much  more  rapid  and  strong;  a  new  style 
and  series,  the  spiritual.  Intellect  and  morals 
appear  only  the  material  forces  on  a  higher 
plane.  The  laws  of  material  nature  run  up 
into  the  invisible  world  of  the  mind,  and 
hereby  we  acquire  a  key  to  those  sublimities 
which  skulk  and  hide  in  the  caverns  of  human 
consciousness.  And  in  the  impenetrable  mys 
tery  which  hides — and  hides  through  absolute 
transparency — the  mental  nature,  I  await  the 
insight  which  our  advancing  knowledge  of 
material  laws  shall  furnish."  1 

By  reason  of  Coleridge's  correlation  Em- 

1  Complete  Works,  X.,  72. 


NATURE  53 

erson  was  able  to  speak  of  laws  in  the  same 
manner  as  Plato  treats  ideas.  These  ideas  of 
Plato's  are  the  sole  realities  and  they  are 
known  only  by  the  intellect.  They  are 
grouped  together  in  the  intelligible  world 
and,  though  they  seem  independent,  there  is 
one  idea  supreme  among  them.  This  is  the 
idea  of  the  Good.  It  is  the  chief  end  of  all 
man's  endeavors;  the  final  satisfaction  for 
which  he  strives.  It  is  also  the  cause  of  ex 
istence  to  all  things  and  of  all  knowledge  that 
man  can  know.  It  is  also  the  principle  of 
unity  both  in  the  world  of  objective  things  and 
in  the  conscious  life  of  intellect  in  man. 
Using  the  analogy  of  the  sun  in  the  visible 
world,  Plato  thus  explains  his  conception: 
"That  therefore  which  imparts  truth  to  what 
is  known,  and  dispenses  the  faculty  of  knowl 
edge  to  him  who  knows,  you  may  call  the  idea 
of  the  good  and  the  principle  of  science  and 
truth,  as  being  known  through  intellect.  And 
as  both  these — knowledge  and  truth — are  so 
beautiful,  you  will  be  right  in  thinking  that 
the  good  is  something  different,  and  still 
more  beautiful  than  these.  Science  and  truth 
here  are  as  light  and  sight  there,  which  we 
rightly  judged  to  be  sun-like,  but  yet  did  not 
think  them  to  be  the  sun:  so  here  it  is  right 


54    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

to  hold  that  both  of  them  partake  of  the  form 
of  the  good,  but  yet  not  right  to  suppose  that 
either  of  them  is  the  good — inasmuch  as  the 
good  itself  is  worthy  of  still  greater  honour. 
.  .  .  You  will  say,  I  think,  that  the  sun 
imparts  to  things  which  are  seen,  not  only 
their  visibility,  but  likewise  their  generation, 
growth  and  nourishment,  though  not  itself 
generation?  Of  course.  We  may  say,  there 
fore,  as  to  things  cognizable  by  the  intellect, 
that  they  became  cognizable  not  only  from  the 
good,  by  which  they  are  known,  but  likewise 
that  their  being  and  essence  are  thence  de 
rived,  while  the  good  itself  is  not  essence,  but 
beyond  essence,  and  superior  to  it  both  in  dig 
nity  and  power."  * 

Parallel  to  this  conception  is  Emerson's 
idea  of  the  universe.  He  believes  in  the  real 
ity  of  an  intelligible  world,  but  it  is  a  world 
of  laws.  And  just  as  Plato  had  found  the 
idea  of  the  good  giving  unity  to  the  ideas  in 
the  intelligible  world,  so  Emerson  finds  uni 
versal  good  saturating  all  the  laws  of  the 
universe  and  binding  them  into  unity.  "I 
find  the  survey  of  the  cosmical  powers  a  doc 
trine  of  consolation  in  the  dark  hours  of 
private  or  public  fortune.  It  shows  us  the 

1  The  Republic,  Bohn  translation,  II.,  IQ&-I99. 


NATURE  55 

world  alive,  guided,  incorruptible;  that  its 
cannon  cannot  be  stolen  nor  its  virtues  mis 
applied.  It  shows  us  the  long  Providence, 
the  safeguards  of  rectitude.  It  animates  ex 
ertion.  .  .  .  This  world  belongs  to  the 
energetical.  It  is  a  fagot  of  laws,  and  a  true 
analysis  of  these  laws,  showing  how  immortal 
and  how  self-protecting  they  are,  would  be  a 
wholesome  lesson  for  every  time  and  for  this 
time.  That  band  which  ties  them  together  is 
unity,  is  universal  good,  saturating  all  with 
one  being  and  aim,  so  that  each  translates  the 
other,  is  only  the  same  spirit  applied  to  new 
departments.  Things  are  saturated  with  the 
moral  law."  1 

"It  is  essential  to  a  true  theory  of  nature  and 
of  man,"  says  Emerson,  "that  it  should  contain 
somewhat  progressive."  2  Holding  to  such  a 
conception  he  was  not  at  rest  in  stating  the 
problem  of  nature  until  he  had  examined  her 
method.  Symbolism  and  correlation  are  the 
ories  that  account  for  the  meaning  of  nature: 
they  tell  what  she  is ;  but  they  do  not  let  one 
into  the  secret  of  the  life  which  gives  nature 
her  method.  Therefore  Emerson  passes  on  to 
consider  what  this  method  of  nature  is;  and 

1  Complete   Works,  X.,  85-86. 

2  Ibid.,  I.,  61. 


56    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

he  still  finds  in  Platonism  the  suggestions  for 
all  his  teachings  on  this  new  topic. 

At  the  basis  of  his  thinking  on  the  method 
of  nature  lies  the  doctrine  of  flux.  This  is  an 
inheritance  of  Plato  and  the  Platonists  from 
the  early  philosophy  of  Heraclitus.  As  Soc 
rates  remarks  in  the  Gratylus,  "Heracleitus 
says  somewhere  that  all  things  move,  and 
nothing  is  at  rest;  and  comparing  things  to 
the  flowing  of  a  river,  observes  that  'Thou 
canst  not  twice  into  the  same  stream  go.'  "  1 
Or,  as  Plotinus  quotes  Heraclitus,  "bodies  are 
always  rising  into  existence,  or  becoming  to 
be,  and  flowing."  2  This  idea  of  flux  Plato, 
and  after  him  the  Platonists,  incorporated  into 
their  theory  of  the  sensible  world.  In  the 
Timceus  the  idea  finds  its  fullest  statement. 
"In  the  first  place,  then,  what  we  now  denomi 
nate  water,  on  becoming  condensed,  seems  to 
take  the  form  of  stones  and  earth, — and  when 
melted  and  dispersed,  that  of  vapour  and  air; 
air  also  when  burnt  up,  becomes  fire,  while 
the  latter  again,  on  becoming  condensed  and 
extinct,  resumes  the  form  of  air;  and  again 
air,  when  collected  and  condensed,  produces 

1  The  Works  of  Plato,  Bohn  translation,  III.,  318. 

2  Select  Works  of  Plotinus,  276. 


NATURE  57 

mists  and  clouds,  from  which,  when  still  more 
compressed,  rain  descends;  and  from  water 
again  are  formed  earth  and  stones;  the 
whole  of  them,  as  it  seems,  exchanging  all 
round  their  mutual  generation. 

"As  these,  then,  never  maintain  any  con 
stancy  of  existence,  who  will  have  the  assur 
ance  to  maintain  that  any  one  of  them  is  this 
rather  than  that?  No  one,  and  it  would  be 
far  the  safest  plan  to  speak  about  them  as  fol 
lows:  When  we  see  anything  constantly 
passing  from  one  state  of  existence  to  another, 
as  fire  for  instance,  we  should  not  say  that  it 
is  fire  absolutely,  but  something  fiery — and 
again,  that  what  we  call  water  is  not  absolutely 
so,  but  something  watery;  without  assigning 
to  them  any  names  that  would  give  the  idea 
of  stability,  as  we  think  people  do,  when  they 
express  it  by  this  and  that;  for  not  being  of 
an  abiding  nature,  it  cannot  endure  to  have 
applied  to  it  such  terms  as,  this  thing,  of  this 
nature,  belonging  to  this;  and  any  such  others 
as  would  show  it  to  have  a  substantive  exist 
ence.  Hence  we  should  not  give  anyone  of 
them  an  individual  name,  but  call  it  some 
thing  such-like,  but  ever  fluctuating;  and  es 
pecially  with  respect  to  fire,  we  should  assert 


58    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

that  it  is  wholly  such-like,  and  similarly  like 
wise,  everything  endued  with  generation."  1 

Emerson  reflects  this  conception  of  the  flux 
of  things  in  his  view  of  the  eternal  cycle  of 
change  manifested  in  the  universe.  "All 
things  are  flowing,"  he  writes,  "even  those 
that  seem  immovable.  The  adamant  is  al 
ways  passing  into  smoke.  The  plants  imbibe 
the  materials  which  they  want  from  the 
air  and  the  ground.  They  burn,  that  is,  ex 
hale  and  decompose  their  own  bodies  into  the 
air  and  earth  again.  The  animal  burns,  or 
undergoes  the  like  perpetual  consumption. 
The  earth  burns,  the  mountains  burn  and  de 
compose,  slower,  but  incessantly.  It  is  almost 
inevitable  to  push  the  generalization  up  into 
higher  parts  of  Nature,  rank  over  rank  into 
sentient  beings.  Nations  burn  with  eternal 
fire  of  thought  and  affection,  which  wastes 
while  it  works.  We  shall  find  finer  combus 
tion  and  finer  fuel.  Intellect  is  a  fire:  rash 
and  pitiless  it  melts  this  wonderful  bone-house 
which  is  called  man."  2 

In  this  flux  of  things  the  constant  substance 
is  law.  "Thin  or  solid,  everything  is  in  flight. 
I  believe  this  conviction  makes  the  charm  of 

1  The  Works  of  Plato,  Bohn  translation,  II.,  355-356. 

2  Complete  Works,  VII.,  145. 


NATURE  59 

chemistry — that  we  have  the  same  avoirdu 
pois  matter  in  an  alembic,  without  a  vestige 
of  the  old  form;  and  in  animal  transforma 
tion  not  less,  as  in  grub  and  fly,  in  egg  and 
bird,  in  embryo  and  man;  everything  undress 
ing  and  stealing  away  from  its  old  into  new 
form,  and  nothing  fast  but  those  invisible 
cords  which  we  call  laws,  on  which  all  is 
strung.  Then  we  see  that  things  wear  differ 
ent  names  and  faces,  but  belong  to  one  family; 
that  the  secret  cords  or  laws  show  their  well- 
known  virtue  through  every  variety,  be  it  ani 
mal,  or  plant,  or  planet,  and  the  interest  is 
gradually  transferred  from  the  forms  to  the 
lurking  method."  l 

Such  a  view  corresponds  to  Plato's  reason 
ing  from  the  instability  of  the  flux  of  sensible 
things  to  the  necessary  existence  of  the  idea, 
"which  subsists  according  to  sameness,  unpro- 
duced  and  not  subject  to  decay;  receiving 
nothing  into  itself  from  elsewhere,  and  itself 
never  entering  into  any  other  nature,  but  in 
visible  and  imperceptible  by  the  senses,  and 
to  be  apprehended  only  by  pure  intellect."2 
The  only  variation  to  be  noted  is  that  Emer 
son  makes  law  the  permanent  substance  amid 

1  Complete  Works,  VIII.,  5. 

2  The  Timaus,  Bohn  translation,  II.,  358. 


60    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

all  change.  But  this  had  been  made  in  ac 
cordance  with  Coleridge's  statement  of  the  re 
lation  of  the  science  of  natural  history  to  the 
science  of  intellect;  they  are  correlative 
sciences  and  law  which  is  the  object  of  inquiry 
in  the  one  is  a  correlative  of  idea,  or  the  end 
of  inquiry,  in  the  other.  By  adopting  this 
theory  Emerson  was  able  to  restate  the  doc 
trine  of  flux  in  order  to  show  that  law  is  the 
only  fixed  thing  we  know  in  nature. 

But  Emerson  has  another  way  of  hand 
ling  the  idea  of  flux.  Plotinus  had  used  the 
doctrine  to  testify  to  the  unreality  of  the 
world  of  sensible  things  as  opposed  to  the 
reality  of  soul.  Emerson  follows  him,  as 
well  as  Plato;  in  fact,  in  his  treatment  of 
flux  Emerson  is  more  frequently  following 
the  ideas  of  Plotinus  than  of  the  older 
philosopher.  For  in  Emerson  the  idea  of 
flux  is  often  associated  with  spirit  or  mind. 
Nature,  he  holds,  is  "always  the  effect,  mind 
the  flowing  cause."  1  "Nature  is  not  fixed 
but  fluid.  Spirit  alters,  moulds,  makes  it."  2 
His  treatment,  then,  leads  to  a  discussion  of 
the  spiritual  life  of  the  universe  which  flows 

1  Complete   Works,  VIIL,  223. 

2  Ibid.,  I.,  76. 


NATURE  61 

through  all  things,   animate  and  inanimate. 
The  idea  of  flux  is  thus  spiritualized. 

The  simplest  form  his  idea  takes  is  given 
in  his  Two  Rivers,  in  which  he  sets  forth  life 
as  a  flux. 


"Thy  summer  voice,  Musketaquit, 

Repeats  the  music  of  the  rain; 

But  sweeter  rivers  pulsing  flit 

Through  thee,  as  thou  through  Concord  Plain. 

"Thou  in  thy  narrow  banks  are  pent; 
The  stream  I  love  unbounded  goes 
Through  flood  and  sea  and  firmament, 
Through  light,  through  life,  it  forward  flows. 

"I  see  the  inundations  sweet, 
I  hear  the  spending  of  the  stream 
Through  years,  through  men,  through  Nature  fleet, 
Through  love  and  thought,  through  power  and 
dream. 

"Musketaquit,  a  goblin  strong, 
Of  shard  and  flint  makes  jewels  gay; 
They  lose  their  grief  who  hear  his  song, 
And  where  he  winds  is  the  day  of  day. 


62    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

"So  forth  and  brighter  fares  my  stream — 
Who  drink  it  shall  not  thirst  again; 
No  darkness  stains  its  equal  gleam, 
And  ages  drop  in  it  like  rain."  1 

In  setting  forth  this  idea  of  flux  in  more  de 
tail  Emerson  draws  upon  the  doctrine  of 
emanation  as  it  was  explained  by  Plotinus. 
Thus  the  flux  of  natural  things  becomes  an 
emanation  from  a  divine  source.  "The 
method  of  nature,"  he  writes ;  "who  could  ever 
analyze  it?  That  rushing  stream  will  not 
stop  to  be  observed.  We  can  never  surprise 
nature  in  a  corner;  never  find  the  end  of  a 
thread;  never  tell  where  to  set  the  first  stone. 
The  bird  hastens  to  lay  her  egg;  the  egg 
hastens  to  be  a  bird.  The  wholeness  we  ad 
mire  in  the  order  of  the  world  is  the  result  of 
infinite  distribution.  Its  smoothness  is  the 
smoothness  of  the  pitch  of  the  cataract.  Its 
permanence  is  a  perpetual  inchoation.  Every 
natural  fact  is  an  emanation,  and  that  from 
which  it  emanates  is  an  emanation  also,  and 
from  every  emanation  is  a  new  emanation, 
If  anything  could  stand  still,  it  would  be 
crushed  and  dissipated  by  the  torrent  it  re 
sisted,  and  if  it  were  a  mind,  would  be  crazed ; 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  248. 


NATURE  63 


as  insane  persons  are  those  who  hold  fast  to 
one  thought  and  do  not  flow  with  the  course 
of  nature.  Not  the  cause,  but  an  ever-novel 
effect,  nature  descends  always  from  above. 
It  is  unbroken  obedience.  The  beauty  of 
these  fair  objects  is  imported  into  them  from 
a  metaphysical  and  eternal  spring.  In  all 
animal  and  vegetable  forms,  the  physiologist 
concedes  that  no  chemistry,  no  mechanics,  can 
account  for  the  facts,  but  a  mysterious  princi 
ple  of  life  must  be  assumed,  which  not  only 
inhabits  the  organ  but  makes  the  organ."  1 

Such  an  interpretation  of  the  method  of 
nature  is  a  result  of  Emerson's  reworking  of 
the  emanation  theory  of  Plotinus  in  keeping 
with  the  primary  notion  of  the  flux  of  things. 
Instead  of  a  ceaseless  flux  on  a  low  plain  of 
absolutely  meaningless  change,  which  the  sim 
ple  doctrine  of  flux  amounts  to,  there  is  an 
endless  flowing  of  things  out  of  an  eternal  and 
metaphysical  spring  which  is  the  divine 
source  of  all  the  fluxions.  The  latter  concep 
tion  finds  its  source  in  Plotinus'  account  of 
the  emanation  of  things  from  the  one  absolute 
principle.  "What,  then,"  he  writes  of  this 
principle,  "shall  we  say  he  is?  The  power 
of  all  things,  without  whose  subsistence  the 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  199-200. 


64    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

universality  of  things  would  never  have  had  a 
being;  nor  would  intellect  have  been,  which 
is  the  first  and  universal  life;  for  that  which 
subsists  above  life  is  the  cause  of  life,  since  the 
energy  of  life  which  is  all  things,  is  not  the 
first,  but  emanates  this  principle  as  its  ineffa 
ble  fountain.  Conceive  then  a  fountain  pos 
sessing  no  other  principle,  but  imparting  itself 
to  all  rivers,  without  being  exhausted  by  any 
one  of  them,  and  abiding  quietly  in  itself;  but 
the  streams  which  emanate  from  this  fountain, 
before  they  flow  in  different  directions,  as  yet 
abiding  together,  and,  as  it  were,  already 
knowing  what  rivulets  will  proceed  from  their 
defluxions."  * 

According  to  another  way  of  viewing  the 
subject  the  method  of  nature  is  identified  with 
the  manifestation  of  the  divine  Presence  rush 
ing  through  the  world  in  eternal  progress.  In 
such  a  conception  the  theory  of  evolution  is 
felt  but  ancient  philosophy  still  more.  In 
Cudworth  Emerson  had  noted  an  explanation 
of  the  universe  conceived  in  the  manner  of  the 
Platonists  as  TO  TO*,  or  God.  "TO  nav,  or 
'the  universe,' "  says  Cudworth,  "was  fre 
quently  taken  by  the  pagan  theologers  also,  as 
we  have  already  intimated,  in  a  more  com- 

1  Five  Books  of  Plotinus,  237. 


NATURE  65 

prehensive  sense,  for  the  Deity,  together  with 
all  the  extent  of  its  fecundity,  God  as  display 
ing  himself  in  the  world;  or,  for  God  and  the 
world  both  together;  the  latter  being  looked 
upon  as  nothing  but  an  emanation  or  efflux 
from  the  former  .  .  .  And  according 
to  this  sense  was  the  god  Pan  understood  both 
by  the  Arcadians  and  the  other  Greeks,  not 
for  the  mere  corporeal  world  as  senseless  and 
inanimate,  nor  as  endued  with  a  plastic  na 
ture  only  (though  this  was  partly  included  in 
the  notion  of  Pan  also),  but  as  proceeding 
from  a  rational  and  intellectual  principle, 
diffusing  itself  through  all;  or  for  the  whole 
system  of  things,  God  and  the  world  together, 
as  one  deity."  1 

With  this  idea  in  mind  Emerson  has  his 
pine  tree  sing  of  the  method  of  nature: 

"  'Harken  once  more ! 

I  will  tell  thee  the  mundane  lore. 
Older  am  I  than  thy  numbers  wot, 
Change  I  may,  but  I  pass  not. 
Hitherto  all  things  fast  abide, 
And  anchored  in  the  tempest  ride. 
Trenchant  time  behooves  to  hurry 
All  to  yean  and  all  to  bury: 

1  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  I.,  582. 


66    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

All  the  forms  are  fugitive, 

But  the  substances  survive. 

Ever  fresh  the  broad  creation, 

A  divine  improvisation, 

From  the  heart  of  god  proceeds, 

A  single  will,  a  million  deeds. 

Once  slept  the  world  an  egg  of  stone, 

And  pulse,  and  sound,  and  light  was  none; 

And  God  said,  "Throb  !"  and  then  was  motion 

And  the  vast  mass  became  vast  ocean. 

Onward  and  on,  the  eternal  Pan, 

Who  layeth  the  world's  incessant  plan, 

Halteth  never  in  one  shape, 

But  forever  doth  escape, 

Like  wave  or  flame,  into  new  forms 

Of  gems,  and  air,  of  plants,  and  worms. 

As  the  bee  through  the  garden  ranges, 
From  world  to  world  the  godhead  changes; 
As  sheep  go  feeding  in  the  waste, 
From  form  to  form  He  maketh  haste; 
This  vault  which  glows  immense  with  light 
Is  the  inn  where  he  lodges  for  a  night.'  "  1 

Finally,  Emerson  considers  the  flux  of  na 
ture  as  an  indication  of  unfolding  conscious 
ness  of  life.  "If  we  look  at  her  work,"  he 
writes  of  nature,  "we  seem  to  catch  a  glance 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  57-59. 


NATURE  67 

of  a  system  in  transition.  Plants  are  the 
young  of  the  world,  vessels  of  health  and 
vigor;  but  they  grope  ever  upward  towards 
consciousness;  the  trees  are  imperfect  men, 
and  seem  to  bemoan  their  imprisonment, 
rooted  in  the  ground.  The  animal  is  the 
novice  and  probationer  of  a  more  advanced 
order.  The  men,  though  young,  having 
tasted  the  first  drop  from  the  cup  of  thought, 
are  already  dissipated:  the  maples  and  ferns 
are  still  uncorrupt;  yet  no  doubt  when  they 
come  to  consciousness  they  too  will  curse  and 
swear."  1 

In  thus  explaining  the  method  of  nature 
Emerson  was  using  a  doctrine  of  Plotinus 
which  taught  the  conscious  life  of  contem 
plative  activity  in  all  things,  even  inanimate. 
"If  previous  to  a  serious  inquiry  into  nature," 
he  writes,  "we  should  jocosely,  as  it  were, 
affirm  that  all  things  desire  contemplation, 
and  verge  to  this  as  their  end,  not  only  rational 
animals  but  those  destitute  of  reason,  the  na 
ture  of  plants,  and  earth,  the  mother  of  them 
all ;  likewise  that  all  things  pursue  contem 
plation,  as  far  as  the  natural  capacity  of  each 
permits,  but  that  some  things  contemplate  and 
pursue  contemplation  differently  from  others, 

1  Complete   Works,  III.,   181-182. 


68    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

some  in  reality  and  some  by  imitation  behold 
ing  only  the  image;  if  we  should  affirm  all 
this,  shall  we  not  appear  to  advance  a  doc 
trine  entirely  new?"  1 

The  method  of  nature  in  Emerson  is  thus 
one  that  grows  out  of  a  belief  in  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  universe.  This  life  is  set  forth  un 
der  the  figure  of  a  stream.  So  Heraclitus  had 
conceived  it  and  had  passed  the  idea  down 
through  Plato  to  the  Platonists.  In  Emerson 
it  is  the  characteristic  image  under  which  he 
views  the  life  of  the  universe.  But  he  is  care 
ful  to  spiritualize  the  idea  of  a  flux  and  to 
identify  it  with  the  ceaseless  energy  of  the 
divine  method  in  nature.  Drawing  upon  the 
tenets  of  Platonism  he  presents  this  energy 
operating  over  and  above  things  while  seated 
in  its  divine  source,  or  as  immanent  in  nature 
as  a  rushing  power  of  onward  progress,  or 
finally,  as  an  unfolding  consciousness  of  life. 
These  are  views  of  nature  that  identify  her 
with  spirit  and  as  will  appear  later,  it  is  into 
this  that  Emerson  finally  resolves  the  world  of 
outward  things. 

Universal  antagonism  is  another  idea  under 
which  Emerson  views  the  life  or  method  of 

1  Five  Books  of  Plotinus,   199-200.     Cf.     Complete   Works 
of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  L,  404. 


NATURE  69 

nature.  At  times  he  considers  the  world  a 
bifold  fact  made  up  of  "metaphysical  antag 
onists"  1  and  names  the  dualism  Undulation 
or  Polarity.2  "Polarity,  or  action  and  reac 
tion,  we  meet  in  every  part  of  nature,"  he 
explains;  "in  darkness  and  light;  in  heat  and 
cold;  in  the  ebb  and  flow  of  waters;  in  male 
and  female;  in  the  inspiration  and  expiration 
of  plants  and  animals ;  in  the  equation  of 
quantity  and  quality  in  the  fluids  of  the  animal 
body;  in  the  systole  and  diastole  of  the  heart; 
in  the  undulations  of  fluids  and  of  sound;  in 
the  centrifugal  and  centripetal  gravity;  in 
electricity,  galvanism,  and  chemical  affinity. 
Superinduce  magnetism  at  one  end  of  a 
needle,  the  opposite  magnetism  takes  place  at 
the  other  end.  If  the  south  attracts,  the  north 
repels.  To  empty  here,  you  must  condense 
there.  An  inevitable  dualism  bisects  nature, 
so  that  each  thing  is  a  half,  and  suggests  an 
other  thing  to  make  it  whole;  as,  spirit,  mat 
ter;  man,  woman;  odd,  even;  subjective,  ob 
jective;  in,  out;  upper,  under;  motion,  rest; 
yea,  nay."  3 

This  is  a  development  of  the  Pythagorean 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  299. 

2  Ibid.,  I.,  98;  II,  96. 
Ubid.,  II.,  96-97. 


70    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

notion  which  forms  one  phase  of  Emerson's 
Platonism.  In  De  Gerando's  Histoire  Com- 
paree  des  Systemes  de  Philosophic  Emerson 
found  an  account  of  the  celebrated  decade  at 
tributed  to  Alcmaeon,  which  gives  a  list  of 
couples  constituting  the  universe.  It  groups 
the  elements  of  the  world  into: 

"Le  fini,   Trepas,  Finfini,   aireipov, 
L'impair,   Treptrrov,  le  pair,  aprtov, 

L'un,  ev,  le  multiple,  ?rA^0os, 

Le  droit,  Se£tov,  le  gauche,  apiorepov, 

Le  male,  appcv,  le  feminin,  &?Av, 

L'objet  en  repos,  ^pe/xwi/,  en  mouveau, 

Le  direct,  ev6v,  le  courbe, 

La  lumiere,  fas,  les  tenebres, 

Le  bon,  ayaOov,  le  mauvais, 

Le    carre,    rtrpaywov,    le    quadrilatere    irregulier, 


In  Emerson's  series  three  of  the  original 
list  of  Alcmaeon  appear;  darkness  and  light, 
male  and  female;  rest  and  motion.  The  ad 
ditions  are  his  own  and  could  be  indefinitely 
extended,  for  the  original  scheme  is  arbitrary. 
It  forms,  however,  the  basis  of  all  Emerson's 
thinking  on  this  phase  of  nature.  It  is  not  as 
profoundly  treated  as  the  foregoing  statement 

xi.,  409- 


NATURE  71 

of  nature's  method;  it  is  a  theory  that  moves 
on  the  surface  of  things  and  lacks  deep  insight 
into  the  inward  life  of  nature.  As  applied  to 
the  world  of  morals  it  forms  the  ground  of 
Emerson's  law  of  compensation;  but  even 
when  thus  used,  it  yields  to  a  higher  idea 
grounded  in  a  truer  conception  of  the  soul's 
life. 

Thus  far  nature  has  been  viewed  in  its 
totality;  but  Emerson's  philosophy  attends  to 
each  particle  of  the  mass  and  finds  it  repre 
sentative  of  the  whole.  He  holds  to  "the  fact 
that  the  universe  is  represented  in  every  one 
of  its  particles.  Everything  in  nature  con 
tains  all  the  powers  of  nature.  Everything  is 
made  of  one  hidden  stuff;  as  the  naturalist 
sees  one  type  under  every  metamorphosis,  and 
regards  a  horse  as  a  running  man,  a  fish  as  a 
swimming  man,  a  bird  as  a  flying  man,  a  tree 
as  a  rooted  man.  Each  new  form  repeats  not 
only  the  main  character  of  the  type,  but  part 
for  part  all  the  details,  all  the  aims,  further 
ances,  hindrances,  energies  and  whole  system 
of  every  other.  Every  occupation,  trade,  art, 
transaction,  is  a  compend  of  the  world  and  a 
correlation  of  every  other.  Each  is  an  entire 
emblem  of  human  life;  of  its  good  and  ill,  its 
trials,  its  enemies,  its  course  and  its  end.  And 


72     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

each  one  must  somehow  accommodate  the 
whole  man  and  recite  all  his  destiny."  * 

This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  microcosm  as 
treated  in  the  Platonists.  In  his  Commen 
taries  on  the  Timceus  of  Plato  Proclus  writes: 
aMan  indeed  is  considered  prior  to  all  things, 
either  because  the  theory  respecting  him  per 
tains  to  us  who  make  him  the  subject  of  dis 
cussion,  and  are  ourselves  men ;  or  because 
man  is  a  microcosm,  and  all  things  subsist  in 
him  partially,  as  the  world  contains  divinely 
and  totally."  2  And  in  his  On  the  Theology 
of  Plato  he  applies  the  idea  to  each  particle 
in  the  universe.  "For  if  man  is  said  to  be  a 
microcosm,  is  it  not  necessary  that  each  of  the 
elements  by  a  much  greater  priority  should 
contain  in  itself  appropriately  all  that  the 
world  contains  totally?"  3 

Out  of  this  conception  arises  Emerson's 
teaching  of  the  fundamental  unity  in  nature. 
"Herein  is  especially  apprehended  the  unity 
of  Nature — the  unity  in  variety — which  meets 
us  everywhere.  All  the  endless  variety  of 
things  make  an  identical  impression.  Xeno- 
phanes  complained  in  his  old  age,  that,  look 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  101. 

2  I,  4- 

3  II.,  193- 


NATURE  73 

where  he  would,  all  things  hastened  back  to 
Unity.  He  was  weary  of  seeing  the  same 
entity  in  the  tedious  variety  of  forms.  The 
fable  of  Proteus  has  a  cordial  truth.  A  leaf, 
a  drop,  a  crystal,  a  moment  of  time,  is  related 
to  the  whole,  and  partakes  of  the  perfection 
of  the  whole.  Each  particle  is  a  microcosm, 
and  faithfully  renders  the  likeness  of  the 
world."  1  The  same  idea  he  expresses  in  his 
poem,  Xenophanes. 

In  thus  insisting  on  the  unity  of  things 
Emerson,  as  his  reference  shows,  was  using  a 
fragment  of  ancient  Hellenic  thought  with 
which  he  was  familiar.  He  got  his  knowledge 
of  Xenophanes  in  De  Gerando,  who  says: 
"II  [Xenophane]  se  plaignait  que,  dans  les 
derniers  temps  de  sa  vie,  il  ne  pouvait  se 
feliciter  de  rien  savoir  avec  certitude :  'quelque 
part  qu'il  portat  ses  regards,  tout  se  resolvait 
pour  lui  dans  1'unite:  il  ne  lui  apparassait 
partout  qu  'une  substance  semblable  a  elle- 
meme.'  " 2 

In  the  conception  of  the  unity  of  all  things, 
so  Emerson  teaches,  lies  the  possibility  of  re 
storing  nature  to  its  original  and  eternal 
beauty.  As  long  as  nature  is  studied  in  a  nar- 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  43. 

2Histoire  Comparee  des  Systemes  de  Philosophic,  I.,  460. 


74    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

rowly  scientific  spirit  which  attends  primarily 
to  naming  of  individual  species,  nature  will 
never  reveal  her  true  meaning  to  the  mind  of 
man.  Thus  in  his  poem,  Blight,  he  expresses 
his  weariness  of  a  surface  knowledge  of  things 
and  accuses  the  young  scholars  of  a  lack  of 
love  and  therefore  of  the  mystic  knowledge 
of  the  flowers  they  pick.  His  mind  refreshes 
itself  in  the  thought  of  the  old  students  of  na 
ture. 

"The  old  men  studied  magic  in  the  flowers, 

And  human  fortunes  in  astronomy, 

And  an  omnipotence  in  chemistry, 

Preferring  things  to  names,  for  these  were  men, 

Were  Unitarians  of  the  united  world, 

And,  wheresoever  their  clear  eye-beams  fell, 

They  caught  the  footsteps  of  the  Same."  l 

That  is,  the  old  men  held  to  a  conception  of 
a  unity  of  things  which  subsisted  the  same 
throughout  all  diversity.  But  we,  he  adds, 
are  strangers  to  the  stars,  the  beast,  the  bird, 
the  mine,  and  the  plant  because  we  use  them 
for  selfish  gain  and  do  not  ask  their  love. 

"Therefore,  to  our  sick  eyes, 
The  stunted  trees  look  sick,  the  summer  short, 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  140. 


NATURE  75 

Clouds  shade  the  sun,  which  will  not  tan  our  hay, 
And  nothing  thrives  to  reach  its  natural  term."  1 

To  bring  back  original  beauty  to  the  world 
thus  blighted,  the  soul  of  man  should  cease 
from  its  disunited  life  and  live  in  a  divine 
unity.  "The  problem  of  restoring  to  the 
world  original  and  eternal  beauty  is  solved  by 
the  redemption  of  the  soul.  The  ruin  or  the 
blank  that  we  see  when  we  look  at  nature,  is 
in  our  own  eye.  The  axis  of  vision  is  not  co 
incident  with  the  axis  of  things,  and  so  they 
appear  not  transparent  but  opaque.  The  rea 
son  why  the  world  lacks  unity,  and  lies 
broken  and  in  heaps,  is  because  man  is  dis 
united  with  himself.  He  cannot  be  a  natural 
ist  until  he  satisfies  all  the  demands  of  the 
spirit.  Love  is  as  much  its  demand  as  per 
ception.  Indeed,  neither  can  be  perfect  with 
out  the  other  .  .  .  When  a  faithful 
thinker,  resolute  to  detach  every  object  from 
personal  relations  and  see  it  in  the  light  of 
thought,  shall,  at  the  same  time,  kindle  science 
with  the  fire  of  the  holiest  affections,  then  will 
God  go  forth  anew  into  the  creation."  2 

This  enkindling  of  the  intellect  by  love  is 
the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  spirit 


141. 
Ibid.,  I,  73-74. 


76    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

of  inquiry  in  Plato.  The  true  philosopher  ac 
cording  to  him  is  above  all  things  a  lover  of 
truth.  And  this  conception  is  carried  over 
into  the  scheme  of  the  Platonists,  who  make 
the  highest  end  of  all  human  knowledge  the 
vision  of  the  eternal  unity  of  all  things,  the 
One.  Thus  Proclus  explains  that  the  mania, 
or  the  inspiration  belonging  to  the  lover,  "re 
ceiving  the  soul  united,  conjoins  this  one  of 
the  soul  to  the  gods,  and  to  intelligible 
beauty."  l 

That  is,  by  living  with  a  divine  unity  the 
soul  realizes  the  highest  possible  experience. 
And  this  according  to  Emerson  would  mean 
the  re-creation  of  the  world.  Hence  in  the 
closing  section  of  Nature,  "Prospects,"  he 
turns  to  the  need  of  re-creating  the  world  as 
the  prospect  that  lies  before  each  one  after  he 
has  come  to  understand  the  meaning  of  nature 
and  its  relation  to  the  mind  of  man.  But  at 
this  point  Emerson's  thought  passes  over  to  a 
consideration  of  his  second  great  theme,  soul : 
and  hence  the  final  solution  of  the  meaning  of 
nature  cannot  be  arrived  at  until  this  theme 
has  been  carefully  explained. 

1  Quoted  by  lamblichus,  On  the  Mysteries,  356. 


CHAPTER  III 

SOUL 

THROUGHOUT  his  treatment  of  nature 
Emerson  relates  his  subject  to  soul. 
His  themes  of  symbolism  and  correlation  of 
mind  and  matter  recognized  the  dependence 
of  nature  upon  spirit  or  mind.  His  concep 
tion  of  the  method  of  nature  leads  him  to 
maintain  the  divine  character  of  the  energy 
which  nature  reveals  in  ceaseless  operation  in 
her  realm.  And  his  hope  of  the  restoration 
of  nature  to  her  primary  and  eternal  beauty  is 
based  upon  his  belief  in  the  purification  of 
the  soul  as  the  means  to  effect  the  change. 

It  was  natural,  then,  as  he  was  at  work  on 
his  first  book,  Nature,  that  he  should  have 
contemplated  the  writing  of  another  essay 
which  he  was  to  entitle  Spirit.  His  plan  as 
later  developed  did  not,  however,  assign  this 
new  idea  to  a  second  essay  but  found  a  place 
for  it  in  the  original  work.  The  seventh 
chapter  of  Nature  is  thus  entitled  "Spirit,"  the 
theme  of  which  is  indicated  in  its  opening 

77 


78    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

paragraph:  "And  all  the  uses  of  nature  ad 
mit  of  being  summed  in  one,  which  yields  the 
activity  of  man  an  infinite  scope.  Through 
all  its  kingdoms,  to  the  suburbs  and  outskirts 
of  things,  it  is  faithful  to  the  cause  whence  it 
had  its  origin.  It  always  speaks  of  Spirit."  1 
In  Emerson's  conception  of  spirit,  then,  is  to 
be  found  his  final  teaching  on  the  meaning  of 
existence;  in  revealing  the  nature  of  soul  all 
his  deepest  thinking  ends. 

His  favorite  authors  were  rich  in  schemes  of 
speculation  on  this  subject.  Plato  had  placed 
the  metaphysics  of  the  soul  on  a  commanding 
eminence  in  his  Phcedo,  Phcedrus,  Republic 
and  Timceus.  Plotinus  had  left  a  group  of 
Enneads  that  carried  the  speculations  of  Plato 
into  the  high  realm  of  rational  mysticism  in 
which  the  soul  of  man  is  in  actual  contact  with 
the  soul  of  the  highest  principle  of  all  things, 
the  One;  and  in  his  theories  of  a  universal  In 
tellect  and  a  Soul  of  the  Universe  he  had  given 
the  form  for  all  the  speculation  of  the  Plato- 
nists  on  the  nature  of  soul.  The  attention 
which  Emerson  gave  to  such  speculation  even 
in  its  most  mystical  flights  testifies  to  the  close 
ness  and  the  sympathy  with  which  he  read 
his  Platonic  sources. 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  61. 


SOUL  79 

Soul  in  Emerson  is  an  all-embracing  term. 
It  means  God.  It  is  also  conceived  as  an  in 
tellectual  energy,  or  pure  intellect.  And  at 
times  Emerson  conceives  it  as  the  very  life  of 
the  universe  under  the  form  of  a  world  soul. 
Roughly  speaking,  his  division  corresponds  to 
the  three  principles  of  the  Platonists  which 
are  often  spoken  of  as  the  Platonic  trinity — 
the  One,  Universal  Intellect,  and  Universal 
Soul.  These  three  are  conceived  as  the  ab 
solute  hypostases  of  things  and  are  all  found 
in  the  soul  of  man.  Emerson  thus  was  able 
to  dignify  his  conception  of  the  human  soul  by 
relating  it  to  these  great  principles.  Of 
psychology  in  the  scientific  acceptance  of  the 
term  in  present-day  philosophy  Emerson  has 
practically  nothing  to  say;  but  of  Soul  as  a 
divine  presence  in  man  and  the  universe  he 
has  left  much  in  his  most  characteristic 
work. 

Owing  to  his  teachings  on  this  subject  he  has 
come  to  be  regarded  as  a  seer  and  out  of  his 
central  conception  arises  the  great  power 
which  his  writings  generate  in  the  lives  of  his 
readers.  In  order  to  show  the  importance  of 
Platonism  in  his  doctrine  of  the  soul,  then,  it 
will  be  best  to  follow  the  threefold  division 
of  his  idea:  Soul  as  God,  or  the  Over-Soul; 


8o    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Soul  as  Intellect;  and  Soul  in  the  universe,  or 
the  World-Soul. 

I. 

THE  OVER-SOUL. 

The  ground  of  all  his  teaching  on  soul  is  to 
be  found  in  his  doctrine  of  a  Universal  Mind, 
which  is  the  sovereign  agent  common  in  its 
entirety  to  all  men.  "There  is  one  mind,"  so 
his  statement  runs,  "common  to  all  individual 
men.  Every  man  is  an  inlet  to  the  same  and 
to  all  of  the  same.  He  that  is  once  admitted 
to  the  right  of  reason  is  made  a  freeman  of  the 
whole  estate.  What  Plato  has  thought,  he 
may  think;  what  a  saint  has  felt,  he  may  feel; 
what  at  any  time  has  befallen  any  man,  he  can 
understand.  Who  hath  access  to  this  univer 
sal  mind  is  a  part  to  all  that  is  or  can  be  done, 
for  this  is  the  only  and  sovereign  agent."  1 

In  Cudworth  is  found  a  conception  quite 
similar  to  this  of  Emerson's.  To  confute  the 
theories  of  atheism  Cudworth  lays  down  the 
principle  "that  there  can  be  but  one  only  orig 
inal  mind,  or  no  more  than  one  understanding 
Being  self-existent;  all  other  minds  whatso 
ever  partaking  of  one  original  mind;  and  be- 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  3. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  81 

ing,  as  it  were,  stamped  with  the  impression 
or  signature  of  one  and  the  same  seal.  From 
whence  it  cometh  to  pass,  that  all  minds,  in 
the  several  places  and  ages  of  the  world,  have 
ideas  or  notions  of  things  exactly  alike,  and 
truths  indivisibly  the  same.  Truths  are  not 
multiplied  by  the  diversity  of  minds  that  ap 
prehend  them ;  because  they  are  all  but  ectypal 
participations  of  one  and  the  same  original  or 
archetypal  mind  and  truth.  As  the  same  face 
may  be  reflected  in  several  glasses;  and  the 
image  of  the  same  sun  may  be  in  a  thousand 
eyes  at  once  beholding  it;  and  one  and  the 
same  voice  may  be  in  a  thousand  ears  listening 
to  it;  so  when  innumerable  created  minds  have 
the  same  ideas  of  things,  and  understand  the 
same  truths,  it  is  but  one  and  the  same  eternal 
light  that  is  reflected  in  them  all  ("that  light, 
which  enlighteneth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world"),  or  the  same  voice  of  that  one 
everlasting  Word,  that  is  never  silent,  re 
echoed  by  them."  * 

The  conception  of  a  universal  mind  goes 
back  to  the  Neo-Platonic  doctrine  of  one  su 
preme  intellect.  In  this  mind  all  particular 
minds  are  contained,  each  expressing  the 
whole  in  its  own  way.  This  supreme  intellect 

1  The  True  Intellectual  Systems  of  the  Universe,  III.,  71. 


82    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

is  one  of  the  absolute  principles.  An  account 
of  the  manner  in  which  all  minds  exist  in  this 
one  great  mind  is  found  in  Plotinus.  "They 
likewise  see  all  things,  not  those  with  which 
generation,  but  those  with  which  essence  is 
present.  And  they  perceive  themselves  in 
others.  For  all  things  there  are  diaphanous; 
and  nothing  is  dark  and  resisting,  but  every 
thing  is  apparent  to  every  one  internally  and 
throughout.  For  light  everywhere  meets 
with  light;  since  everything  contains  all  things 
in  itself,  and  again  sees  all  things  in  another. 
So  that  all  things  are  everywhere,  and  all  is 
all.  Each  thing  likewise  is  everything."  1 

Emerson's  account  compared  with  Cud- 
worth's  and  Plotinus'  shows  a  characteristic 
manner  of  approach.  Cudworth  and  Plotinus 
are  concerned  with  the  nature  and  existence 
of  the  supreme  mind  considered  in  and  for  it 
self,  while  Emerson  views  the  question  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  individual  man  who 
shares  in  this  supreme  mind  as  an  inherited 
right.  He  thus  emphasizes  the  individual's 
claim  to  such  a  mind. 

But  Emerson  elaborates  the  idea  in  an  even 
more  characteristic  fashion.  In  the  state 
ment  of  the  doctrine  as  thus  far  made,  the 

1  Select  Works,  Introduction,  p.  Ixxx.,  note. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  83 

universal  mind  is  described  as  merely  present 
to  each  individual ;  no  more  specific  account 
of  the  relation  between  the  two  is  given.  But 
in  the  name  Over-Soul,  which  Emerson  ap 
plies  to  the  universal  mind,  there  is  a  clear  in 
dication  of  a  change  in  the  relation  between 
it  and  the  individual;  the  universal  soul  pre 
sides  over  the  former,  gives  it  its  life  and 
directs  its  energies. 

This  advance  in  the  idea  recognizes  the 
teaching  of  the  Platonists  concerning  the  in 
ter-relation  of  their  three  great  principles  of 
all  things.  These  principles  are  arranged  in 
a  causal  series.  At  the  head  is  the  One,  out 
of  which  proceeds  logically  Universal  Mind 
or  Intellect;  and  this  latter  in  turn  gives  rise 
to  Universal  Soul.  Each  of  the  two  princi 
ples  below  the  One  finds  above  it  a  greater 
principle  out  of  which  it  comes  and  toward 
which  its  energies  are  directed.  Proclus 
speaking  of  the  relation  of  the  third  princi 
ple  to  the  second  says  that  "she  [soul]  sees 
above  all  souls,  intellectual  essences  and  or 
ders.  For  above  every  soul  a  deiform  intel 
lect  resides,  which  imparts  to  the  soul  an  in 
tellectual  habit.  She  also  sees  prior  to  these, 
the  monads  of  the  gods  themselves  which  are 
above  intellect,  and  from  which  the  intellec- 


84    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

tual  multitudes  receive  their  unions.  For  it  is 
necessary  that  unific  causes  should  be  placed 
above  things  united,  in  the  same  manner  as 
vivifying  causes  are  above  things  vivified, 
causes  that  impart  intellect  are  above  things 
intellectualized,  and  in  a  similar  manner  un- 
participable  hypostases  are  above  all  partici 
pants."  x 

Plotinus,  in  like  manner,  describes  the 
relation  of  soul  to  the  world.  "For  it  [soul] 
governs,  abiding  on  high.  And  the  world  is 
animated  after  such  a  manner,  that  it  cannot 
with  so  much  propriety  be  said  to  have  a  soul 
of  its  own,  as  to  have  a  soul  presiding  over 
it;  being  subdued  by,  and  not  subduing  it, 
and  being  possessed,  and  not  possessing.  For 
it  lies  in  soul  which  sustains  it,  and  no  part  of 
it  is  destitute  of  soul ;  being  moistened  with 
life,  like  a  net  in  water."  2 

In  such  statements  as  these  is  to  be  found 
the  suggestion  of  that  theory  of  the  Over-Soul 
which  Emerson  expounds  in  the  following 
passage:  "The  Supreme  Critic  on  the  errors 
of  the  past  and  the  present,  and  the  only 
prophet  of  that  which  must  be,  is  that  great 

1  Proclus,  On  Providence  and  Fate,  in  On  the  Theology  of 
Plato,  II.,  455-456. 

2  Select  Works,  343. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  85 

nature  in  which  we  rest  as  the  earth  lies  in 
the  soft  arms  of  the  atmosphere;  that  Unity, 
that  Over-Soul,  within  which  every  man's 
particular  being  is  contained  and  made  one 
with  all  other;  that  common  heart  of  which 
all  sincere  conversation  is  the  worship,  to 
which  all  right  action  is  submission ;  that  over 
powering  reality  which  confutes  our  tricks 
and  talents,  and  constrains  every  one  to  pass 
for  what  he  is,  and  to  speak  from  his  character 
and  not  from  his  tongue,  and  which  evermore 
tends  to  pass  into  our  thought  and  hand  and 
become  wisdom  and  virtue  and  power  and 
beauty.  We  live  in  succession,  in  division,  in 
parts,  in  particles.  Meantime  within  man  is 
the  soul  of  the  whole;  the  wise  silence;  the 
universal  beauty,  to  which  every  part  and 
particle  is  equally  related;  the  eternal  One."  J 
In  this  passage  there  is  an  accumulation  of 
detail  which  shows  how  Emerson  uses  the 
various  doctrines  of  Platonism  to  do  honor  to 
his  great  idea,  the  Over-Soul.  He  identifies 
it  with  "that  Unity"  and  with  "the  eternal 
One,"  both  of  which  expressions  refer  to  the 
first  of  the  absolute  principles  of  the  Platon- 
ists,  the  One.  In  stating  that  in  the  Over- 
Soul  every  man's  particular  being  is  contained 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  26^-269. 


86    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

and  made  one  with  all  other,  he  makes  refer 
ence  to  the  conception  of  the  supreme  intellect, 
in  which,  according  to  Plotinus,  all  minds 
subsist  together.  "And  they  perceive  them 
selves  in  others,"  Plotinus  writes.  "For  all 
things  there  are  diaphanous;  and  nothing  is 
dark  and  resisting,  but  everything  is  apparent 
to  everyone  internally  and  throughout.  For 
light  everywhere  meets  with  light;  since 
everything  contains  all  things  in  itself,  and 
again  sees  all  things  in  another.  So  that  all 
things  are  everywhere,  and  all  is  all.  Each 
thing  likewise  is  everything."  1 

When  he  says  that  though  we  live  in  di 
vision,  there  is  within  us  the  soul  of  the  whole, 
his  words  recall  what  Plotinus  had  written 
of  the  soul:  "For  it  does  not  give  life  to 
individuals,  through  a  division  of  itself  into 
minute  parts,  but  it  vivifies  all  things  with  the 
whole  of  itself;  and  the  whole  of  it  is  present 
everywhere,  in  a  manner  similar  to  its  gen 
erator,  both  according  to  oneness  and  ubiq 
uity."  2  In  identifying  the  Over-Soul  with 
the  universal  beauty,  Emerson  is  referring 
to  the  absolute  beauty  which  stands  at  the  end 
of  the  dialectic  quest  in  Plato's  Banquet  and 

1  Select  Works,  Introduction,  p.  Ixxx.,  note. 

2  Ibid.,  258. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  87 

which  Plotinus  at  times  acknowledges  to  be 
the  first  principle  of  things,  the  beautiful 
itself.1 

Furthermore,  in  designating  the  Over- 
Soul  "the  wise  silence,"  Emerson  was  but 
summing  up  what  Plotinus  teaches  concern 
ing  the  One  and  its  knowledge  of  itself.  "In 
the  next  place,"  adds  Plotinus,  "that  which  is 
entirely  simple  will  not  be  in  want  of  a  busy 
energy,  as  it  were,  about  itself.  For  what  will 
it  learn  by  intellectual  perception?  For 
prior  to  this  perception,  it  exists  that  which 
it  is  to  itself.  For  again,  knowledge  is  a  cer 
tain  desire  and,  as  it  were,  an  investigating 
discovery.  Hence,  that  which  is  without  any 
difference  in  itself  with  respect  to  itself,  is 
quiescent,  and  investigates  nothing  respecting 
itself."  2  It  is  so  truly  one  that  it  does  not 
even  think  itself  and  yet  is  not  ignorant. 

Finally,  in  stating  that  this  Over-Soul  is 
within  us,  Emerson  agrees  with  Plotinus  in 
his  explanation  that  "as  in  the  nature  of  things 
there  are  these  three  hypostases,  so,  likewise, 
it  is  proper  to  think,  that  the  above  mentioned 
three  subsist  with  us."  3  Emerson's  exposi- 

1  An  Essay  on  the  Beautiful,  32. 

2  Select  Works,  432. 
9  Ibid.,  279. 


88     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

tion,  then,  of  the  Over-Soul  is  a  highly  concen 
trated  series  of  Platonic  conceptions,  whose 
central  life  is  to  be  found  in  the  theorizing  of 
Plotinus  concerning  the  One.  No  better 
illustration  of  the  way  in  which  Emerson  uses 
the  shreds  and  patches  of  Platonic  theory  to 
express  himself  could  be  found. 

In  Emerson's  most  characteristic  teaching, 
then,  soul  is  conceived  in  a  way  that  lifts 
it  above  the  common  view  of  its  nature  as  the 
mere  thinking  and  vital  part  of  man.  It  is 
not  a  faculty.  It  is  rather  the  Divine  Pres 
ence  itself  in  man  striving  to  burn  away  all 
that  is  personal,  so  that  He  alone  can  give  life 
to  the  individual  soul.  In  this  Divine  Soul 
man  participates;  it  is  a  larger  thing  than  any 
one  soul,  so  to  speak,  for  it  is  the  Over-Soul. 
Thus  Emerson  in  his  essay,  The  Over-Soul,  at 
the  outset  of  his  explanation  carefully  defines 
his  idea:  "All  goes  to  show  that  the  soul  in 
man  is  not  an  organ,  but  animates  and  exer 
cises  all  the  organs ;  is  not  a  function,  like  the 
power  of  memory,  of  calculation,  of  compari 
son,  but  uses  these  as  hands  and  feet;  is  not  a 
faculty,  but  a  light;  is  not  the  intellect  or  the 
will,  but  the  master  of  the  intellect  or  the  will ; 
is  the  background  of  our  being,  in  which  they 
lie — an  immensity  not  possessed  and  cannot 

V 


THE  OVER-SOUL  89 

be  possessed.  From  within  or  from  behind, 
a  light  shines  through  us  upon  things  and 
makes  us  aware  that  we  are  nothing,  but  the 
light  is  alJU'LA. 


Such  psychology  is  in  keeping  with  the  con 
ception  of  Plotinus.  From  Plato,  Plotinus 
inherited  the  manner  of  conceiving  spiritual 
notions  under  the  figure  of  light.  The  part 
that  the  figure  plays  in  his  explanation  of  the 
mystical  experiences  of  the  soul  is  an  impor 
tant  one.  Thus  he  speaks  of  the  mystical 
trance  when  the  soul  enjoys  the  presence  of 
the  One :  "Then  also  it  is  requisite  to  believe 
that  we  have  seen  it,  when  the  soul  receives  a 
sudden  light.  For  this  light  is  from  him, 
and  is  him.  And  then  it  is  proper  to  think 
that  he  is  present,  when  like  another  God 
entering  into  the  house  of  some  one  who  in 
vokes  him,  he  fills  it  with  splendour.  For 
unless  he  entered,  he  would  not  illuminate  it. 
And  thus  the  soul  would  be  without  light,  and 
without  the  possession  of  this  God.  But  when 
illuminated,  it  has  that  which  it  sought  for. 
This  likeness  is  the  true  end  to  the  soul,  to 
come  into  contact  with  his  light,  and  to  behold 
him  through  it;  not  by  the  light  of  another 
thing;  but  to  perceive  that  very  thing  itself 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  270. 


90    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

through  which  it  sees.  For  that  through 
which  it  is  illuminated,  is  the  very  thing  which 
it  is  necessary  to  behold."  1 

Emerson's  account  shows  a  direct  connec 
tion  with  one  of  the  Cambridge  Platonists, 
John  Smith,  an  extract  from  whose  work  ap 
pears  in  a  note  to  a  passage  in  Coleridge's 
Aids  to  Reflection.  To  point  the  difference 
between  reason  and  understanding  Coleridge 
quotes  from  Smith's  Posthumous  Tracts 
( 1660)  :  "  'While  we  reflect  on  our  own  idea 
of  Reason,  we  know  that  our  souls  are  not  it, 
but  only  partake  of  it;  and  that  we  have  it 
Kara  pAOgw  and  not  K°-T  oixnrjv.  Neither  can  it 
be  called  a  faculty,  but  far  rather  a  light, 
which  we  enjoy,  but  the  source  of  which  is 
not  in  ourselves,  nor  rightly  by  any  individual 
to  be  denominated  mine!  "  2  It  is  a  concep 
tion  of  soul  quite  in  keeping  with  Plotinus' 
conception  and  so  tersely  stated  as  to  attract 
Emerson. 

Holding  to  such  a  conception  of  soul, 
Plotinus  finds  the  highest  experience  possible 
for  man  in  a  mystical  state.  Plato  had  never 
developed  the  mystical  side  of  his  doctrine  as 

1  Select  Works,  452-453. 

2  The   Complete    Works   of   Samuel    Taylor   Coleridge,   I., 
264,  n. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  91 

it  lay  inherent  in  his  conception  of  an  abso 
lute  idea  of  the  good  which  is  above  all  being. 
Now  the  all-absorbing  work  of  Plotinus  was 
to  formulate  a  scheme  of  mysticism  on  the 
basis  of  Plato.  In  so  doing  he  brought  to  a 
logical  culmination  the  preceding  develop 
ment  of  all  Hellenic  thought  so  that  his  work 
stands  to-day  as  the  flower  of  that  philosophi 
cal  life  which  started  with  Thales  and  Anaxi- 
mander.  His  system  is  thus  one  of  rational 
mysticism,  which  aims  to  show  how  the  log 
ical  outcome  of  speculation  on  knowledge 
ends  in  an  experience  which  transcends  knowl 
edge  itself. 

Such  a  scheme  appealed  to  Emerson ;  it  was 
as  the  water  of  life  to  his  soul.  His  demand 
was  for  a  philosophy  of  insight.  He  was  dis 
satisfied  with  the  ways  of  systematic  philoso 
phy;  what  he  wanted  above  all  things  was  a 
fresh  contact  with  spiritual  realities.  "The 
foregoing  generations  beheld  God  and  nature 
face  to  face;  we,  through  their  eyes.  Why 
should  not  we  also  enjoy  an  original  relation 
to  the  universe?  Why  should  not  we  have  a 
poetry  and  philosophy  of  insight  and  not  of 
tradition,  and  a  religion  by  revelation  to  us, 
and  not  the  history  of  theirs?"  1  The  mystical 

1  Complete  Works,  L,  3. 


92    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

teaching  of  Plotinus  satisfied  these  needs,  as 
will  appear  when  Emerson's  work  is  reviewed 
in  connection  with  the  Enneads  of  Plotinus 
and  other  writings  of  members  of  his  school. 

Both  Emerson  and  Plotinus  agree  in  defin 
ing  the  mystic  state  as  a  union  of  the  soul  with 
God.  "Ineffable  is  the  union  of  man  and 
God,"  writes  Emerson,  "in  every  act  of  the 
soul.  The  simplest  person  who  in  his  integ 
rity  worships  God,  becomes  God."  1  In  his 
account  of  the  experience  Plotinus  says  of  the 
soul:  "Becoming  wholly  absorbed  in  deity, 
she  is  one,  conjoining  as  it  were  centre  with 
centre.  For  here  concurring  they  are  one; 
but  they  are  then  two  when  they  are  separate. 
.  .  .  Since,  therefore  [in  this  conjunction 
with  deity],  there  were  not  two  things,  but 
the  perceiver  was  one  with  the  thing  per 
ceived,  as  not  being  [properly  speaking] 
vision,  but  union ;  whoever  becomes  one  by 
mingling  with  deity,  and  afterwards  recol 
lects  this  union,  will  have  with  himself  an 
image  of  it."  2 

Both  describe  the  experience  as  a  vision  in 
which  the  two  participants  are  one.  Writing 
of  the  eternal  One  present  in  the  soul  of  man, 

1  Ibid.,  II.,  292. 

2  Select  Works,  502-503. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  93 

Emerson  states  as  the  peculiarity  of  the  ex 
perience  that  "the  act  of  seeing  and  the  thing 
seen,  the  seer  and  the  spectacle,  the  subject 
and  the  object  are  one."  *  A  like  characteris 
tic  is  put  forward  by  Plotinus.  "Perhaps, 
however,  neither  must  it  be  said  that  he  sees, 
but  that  he  is  the  thing  seen ;  if  it  is  necessary 
to  call  these  two  things,  i.  e.,  the  perceiver 
and  the  thing  perceived.  But  both  are  one; 
though  it  is  bold  to  assert  this."  2 

Examined  from  another  point  of  view,  the 
relation  is  not  thus  boldly  stated,  but  is 
changed  to  one  in  which  the  soul  of  the  indi 
vidual  is  enveloped  by  an  all-embracing  pres 
ence.  In  lamblichus  the  contact  with  divinity 
is  thus  given:  "We  are  comprehended  in  it, 
or  rather  we  are  filled  by  it,  and  we  possess 
that  very  thing  which  we  are  [or  by  which 
our  essence  is  characterized],  in  knowing  the 
gods."  3  In  recounting  his  experience  when 
the  soul  opens  to  a  vision  of  the  unity  of  things 
Emerson  says  of  the  beatitude:  "It  is  not  in 
us  so  much  as  we  are  in  it."  4  He  repeats  the 
idea  in  the  same  account.5  Speaking  of  mo- 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  269. 

2  Select  Works,  502. 

3  On  the  Mysteries,  24. 

4  Complete  Works,  VI.,  25. 

5  Ibid.,  VI.,  26. 


94    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

ments  of  inspiration,  Emerson  uses  the  same 
form  of  statement — "We  might  say  of  these 
memorable  moments  of  life  that  we  were  in 
them,  not  they  in  us."  1  It  is  a  common  ex 
pression  with  him. 

In  one  of  the  Chaldean  oracles  the  idea  of 
envelopment  is  conveyed  in  a  slightly  varied 
form  which  Emerson  also  uses.  Speaking  of 
human  souls,  the  oracle  explains:  "But  they 
lie  in  God,  drawing  vigorous  torches  [i.  e., 
unities,  images  of  the  one~\,  descending  from 
the  father;  and  from  these  descending,  the 
soul  plucks  of  empyrean  fruits,  the  soul- 
nourishing  flower."  2  In  language  less  tech 
nical  and  figurative  Emerson  conveys  the 
thought  underlying  this  oracle  in  his  words — 
"We  lie  in  the  lap  of  immense  intelligence, 
which  makes  us  receivers  of  its  truth  and 
organs  of  its  activity."  3 

Emerson  even  imitates  perhaps  the  most 
impressive  account  which  Plotinus  has  left  of 
the  experience.  In  one  of  his  descriptions 
Plotinus  closes  with  the  conclusion — "This, 
therefore,  is  the  life  of  the  Gods,  and  of  divine 
and  happy  men,  a  liberation  from  all  terrene 

1  Complete  Works,  VIII.,  279. 

2  Select  Works,  343,  note  i. 

3  Complete  Works,  II.,  64. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  95 

concerns,  a  life  unaccompanied  with  human 
pleasures,  and  a  flight  of  the  alone  to  the 
alone."  1  Such  an  experience  Emerson  calls 
"a  beatitude,  but  without  any  sign  of  joy; 
earnest,  solitary,  even  sad."  2  And  quoting 
Plotinus,  he  names  it  "the  flight  of  the  alone 
to  the  alone."*  Consequently,  in  his  Over- 
Soul  he  emphasizes  the  necessity  of  loneliness, 
of  the  putting  away  of  all  human  mediation 
as  the  condition  of  the  experience.  "The  soul 
gives  itself,  alone,  original  and  pure,  to  the 
Lonely,  Original  and  Pure,  who,  on  that  con 
dition,  gladly  inhabits,  leads  and  speaks 
through  it."  4 

The  loneliness  and  sadness  of  the  flight  im 
pressed  him  as  is  seen  in  his  more  elaborate 
attempt  to  bring  out  the  unique  character  of 
the  experience.  "And  now  at  last,"  he  writes, 
"the  highest  truth  on  this  subject  remains  un 
said;  probably  cannot  be  said;  for  all  that  we 
say  is  the  far-off  remembering  of  the  intuition. 
That  thought  by  what  I  can  now  nearest  ap 
proach  to  say  it,  is  this.  When  good  is  near 
you,  when  you  have  life  in  yourself,  it  is  not 
by  any  known  or  accustomed  way;  you  shall 

1  Select  Works,  506. 

2  Complete  Works,  IV.,  97. 

3  Ibid. 
*Ibid.,  II.,  296. 


96    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

not  discern  the  footprints  of  any  other;  you 
shall  not  see  the  face  of  man;  you  shall  not 
hear  any  name; — the  way,  the  thought,  the 
good,  shall  be  wholly  strange  and  new.  It 
shall  exclude  example  and  experience.  You 
take  the  way  from  man,  not  to  man.  All  per 
sons  that  ever  existed  are  its  forgotten  minis 
ters.  Fear  and  hope  are  alike  beneath  it. 
There  is  somewhat  low  even  in  hope.  In  the 
hour  of  vision  there  is  nothing  that  can  be 
called  gratitude,  nor  properly  joy."  1 

The  note  of  loneliness  in  Plotinus'  descrip 
tion  of  the  mystic  trance  caught  Emerson's  ear 
and  awakened  a  response  within  him.  He 
loved  solitude  for  the  spiritual  strengthening 
he  found  in  it;  and  throughout  his  work  he 
lays  emphasis  upon  the  need  of  it  in  life.  "Ah 
me!"  he  complains,  "no  man  goeth  alone."2 
"Let  me  admonish  you,"  he  says  to  the  Cam 
bridge  divinity  students,  "first  of  all,  to  go 
alone."  3  To  gain  self-reliance  he  says,  "We 
must  go  alone."4  "Think  alone,"  he  holds, 
"and  all  places  are  friendly  and  sacred."  5  Of 
the  poets  who  live  as  hermits  in  cities  he 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  68-69. 

2  Ibid.,  I,  144. 

3  Ibid.,  I.,  145. 

*  Ibid.,  II.,  71. 

*  Ibid.,  I.,  174. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  97 

writes :  "They  are  alone  with  the  mind."  l 
In  all  these  sentences  is  heard  the  echoing  of 
that  phrase  of  Plotinus  which  names  the  mys 
tic  experience  "a  flight  of  the  alone  to  the 
alone." 

In  teaching  receptivity  as  the  attitude  of 
the  soul  in  this  experience  Emerson  identifies 
himself  with  Plotinus.  The  latter  held  athat 
the  nature  of  soul  is  everywhere  tractable;  and 
that  it  may  be  received  the  most  easily  of  all 
things,  if  any  thing  is  fashioned  so  as  to  be 
passive  to  it,  and  is  able  to  receive  a  certain 
portion  of  it."  2  The  same  idea  is  given  in 
Emerson's  words :  "When  I  watch  that  flow 
ing  river,  which,  out  of  regions  I  see  not,  pours 
for  a  season  its  streams  into  me,  I  see  that  I  am 
a  pensioner;  not  a  cause  but  a  surprised  spec 
tator  of  this  ethereal  water;  that  I  desire  and 
look  up  and  put  myself  in  the  attitude  of  re 
ception,  but  from  some  alien  energy  the  vis 
ions  come."  3 

Before  such  a  mystic  experience  is  possible 
there  must  be  a  putting  off  of  all  that  is  for 
eign  so  as  to  present  the  soul  in  pure  naked 
ness.  Thus  Plotinus  speaking  of  such  abla- 

*Ibid.,  I.,   175- 

*  Select  Works,  347. 

3  Complete  Works,  II.,  268. 


98    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

tion  remarks:  "But  as  it  is  said  of  matter, 
that  it  ought  to  be  void  of  all  qualities,  in  or 
der  that  it  may  receive  the  impressions  of  all 
things;  thus  also,  and  in  a  much  greater  de 
gree,  it  is  necessary  that  the  soul  should  be 
come  formless,  in  order  that  there  may  be  no 
impediment  to  its  being  filled  and  illuminated 
by  the  first  principles  of  things."  1  "And 
how,  therefore,"  he  asks,  "can  this  be  accom 
plished?  By  an  ablation  of  all  things."  2  In 
such  teaching  we  find  the  parallel  to  Emer 
son's  reiterations  of  the  necessity  of  humility 
as  a  condition  of  the  mystic  experience;  as 
when  he  assures  us :  "This  energy  does  not 
descend  into  individual  life  on  any  other  con 
dition  than  entire  possession.  It  comes  to  the 
lowly  and  simple;  it  comes  to  whomsoever 
will  put  off  what  is  foreign  and  proud."  3 

A  second  condition  of  enjoying  the  great 
experience  is  that  the  soul  should  be  in  a  state 
of  absolute  oneness.  As  Plotinus  puts  it, 
"the  soul,  likewise,  should  for  this  purpose  be 
liberated  from  all  vice,  in  consequence  of  has 
tening  to  the  [vision  of  the]  good;  and  should 
ascend  to  the  principle  which  is  in  herself,  and 

1  Select  Works,  491. 

2  Ibid.,  454. 

8  Complete  Works,  II.,  289. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  99 

become  one  instead  of  many  things,  in  order 
that  she  may  survey  the  principle  of  all  things, 
and  the  one/' l  Or,  as  Emerson  says  of  one 
who  reverences  the  soul,  "he  will  weave  no 
longer  a  spotted  life  of  shreds  and  patches,  but 
he  will  live  with  a  divine  unity."  2  In  this 
unified  life,  as  has  already  been  seen,  Emerson 
finds  the  way  to  restore  the  world  to  its  orig 
inal  beauty. 

The  feeling  experienced  by  the  soul  in  this 
union  with  the  divine  One  is  a  nimble  glad 
ness.  According  to  Plotinus  when  the  soul 
sees  God,  "she  will  perceive  herself  to  be  a 
pure  light,  unburthened,  agile." 3  "She  is 
affected  in  the  most  felicitous  manner."  4  Or 
as  Emerson  describes  the  feeling  of  the  soul, 
"then  is  it  glad,  young  and  nimble."  5 

The  element  of  youthfulness  in  Emerson's 
statement  was  imported  into  the  experience 
from  a  source  other  than  Plotinus:  it  is  a  sug 
gestion  from  Proclus.  In  his  own  copy  of 
Proclus  On  the  Theology  of  Plato  Emerson 
had  indexed  under  "Youth"  a  passage  from 
which  the  following  is  an  extract:  "For  he 

1  Select  Works,  476. 

2  Complete  Works,  II.,  297. 

3  Select  Works,  500. 
*  Ibid.,  499. 

5  Complete  Works,  II.,  296. 


ioo    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

[Plato]  says  that  souls  in  the  Saturnian  period 
abandon  old  age,  but  return  to  youth,  and  re 
move  from  themselves  hoariness  but  have 
black  hair;  but  the  cheeks  of  those  that  have 
beards  being  rendered  smooth,  they  are  re 
stored  to  the  past  season  (of  youth)."1  In 
like  vein  Emerson  writes :  "We  grizzle  every 
day.  I  see  no  need  of  it.  Whilst  we  con 
verse  with  what  is  above  us,  we  do  not  grow 
old,  but  grow  young.  Infancy,  youth,  recep 
tive,  aspiring,  with  religious  eye  looking  up 
ward,  counts  itself  nothing  and  abandons  it 
self  to  the  instruction  flowing  from  all  sides. 
But  the  man  and  woman  of  seventy  assume  to 
know  all,  they  have  outlived  their  hope,  they 
renounce  aspiration,  accept  the  actual  for  the 
necessary  and  talk  down  to  the  young.  Let 
them  then  become  organs  of  the  Holy  Ghost; 
let  them  be  lovers ;  let  them  behold  truth ;  and 
their  ever  are  uplifted,  their  wrinkles 
smoothed,  they  are  perfumed  again  with  hope 
and  power."  2 

In  spite  of  the  attempt  to  describe  the  state, 
its  ineffableness  remains  its  chief  feature. 
After  his  account  of  the  union,  Plotinus  adds: 
"This  spectacle  is  a  thing  difficult  to  explain 

1 1,  333- 

2  Complete  Works,  II.,  319. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  101 

by  words.  For  how  can  any  one  narrate  that 
as  something  different  from  himself,  which, 
when  he  sees  he  does  not  behold  as  different, 
but  as  one  with  himself?  This,  therefore,  is 
manifested  by  the  mandate  of  the  mysteries, 
which  orders  that  they  shall  not  be  divulged 
to  those  who  are  uninitiated.  For  as  that 
which  is  divine  cannot  be  unfolded  to  the  mul 
titude,  this  mandate  forbids  the  attempt  to 
elucidate  it  to  any  one  but  him  who  is  for 
tunately  able  to  perceive  it."  *  Similar  to 
this  are  the  utterances  of  Emerson:  "I  can 
not — nor  can  any  man — speak  precisely  of 
things  so  sublime,  but  it  seems  to  me  the  wit 
of  man,  his  strength,  his  grace,  his  tendency, 
his  art,  is  the  grace  and  the  presence  of  God. 
It  is  beyond  explanation."  2  "Ineffable  is  the 
union  of  man  and  God  in  every  act  of  the  soul. 
The  simplest  person  who  in  his  integrity  wor 
ships  God,  becomes  God;  yet  for  ever  and 
ever  the  influx  of  this  better  and  universal 
self  is  new  and  unsearchable."  3 

The  absolute  principle  with  which  the  soul 
aims  to  identify  itself  is  also  ineffable. 
"There  is  a  principle  \vhich  is  the  basis  of 

1  Select  Works,  502-503. 

2  Complete  Works,  L,  194. 

3  Ibid..  II.,  292. 


102    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

things,"  observes  Emerson,  "which  all  speech 
aims  to  say,  and  all  action  to  evolve,  a  simple, 
quiet,  imdescribed,  undescribable  presence, 
dwelling  very  peacefully  in  us,  our  rightful 
lord."  l  Plotinus  names  the  One  "the  most 
simple  of  things."  "Being  alone  and  soli 
tary,"  he  adds,  "it  is  perfectly  quiescent."  2 
He  further  observes:  "Hence,  it  is  in  reality 
ineffable.  For  of  whatever  you  speak,  you 
speak  of  a  certain  thing.  But  of  that  which 
is  beyond  all  things,  and  which  is  beyond  even 
most  venerable  intellect,  it  is  alone  true  to 
assert  that  it  has  not  any  other  name  [than  the 
ineffable],  and  that  it  is  not  some  one  of  all 
things.  Properly  speaking,  however,  there  is 
no  name  of  it,  because  nothing  can  be  asserted 
of  it.  We,  however,  endeavour  as  much  as 
possible  to  signify  to  ourselves  something  re 
specting  it." 3 

Entrance  into  this  high  communion  is  not 
by  knowledge  or  any  reasoning  process,  but 
by  an  actual  presence  of  the  great  principle  in 
the  soul  of  man.  "In  this  affair,"  writes 
Plotinus,  "a  doubt  especially  arises,  because 
the  perception  of  the  highest  God  is  not  ef- 

*  Ibid.,  VI.,  213. 
2  Select  Works,  441,  429. 
.,  439- 


THE  OVER-SOUL  103 

fected  by  science,  nor  by  intelligence,  like 
other  intelligibles,  but  by  the  presence  of  him, 
which  is  a  mode  of  knowledge  superior  to  that 
of  science.  But  the  soul  suffers  an  apostacy 
from  the  one,  and  is  not  entirely  one  when  it 
receives  scientific  knowledge.  For  science  is 
reason,  and  reason  is  multitudinous.  The 
soul,  therefore,  in  this  case,  deviates  from  the 
one,  and  falls  into  number  and  multitude."  l 
In  keeping  with  such  an  idea  Emerson 
writes:  "If  we  ask  whence  this  comes,  if  we 
seek  to  pry  into  the  soul  that  causes,  all  philos 
ophy  is  at  fault.  Its  presence  or  its  absence  is 
all  we  can  affirm."  2  Man  attempting  to  give 
an  account  of  himself  must  be  content  to  re 
cite  "the  fact  that  there  is  a  Life  not  to  be 
described  or  known  otherwise  than  by  posses 
sion.  What  account  can  he  give  of  his  essence 
more  than  so  it  was  to  be?  The  royal  reason, 
the  Grace  of  God,  seems  the  only  description 
of  our  multiform,  but  ever  identical  fact. 
There  is  virtue,  there  is  genius,  there  is  success, 
or  there  is  not.  There  is  the  incoming  or  the 
receding  of  God :  that  is  all  we  can  affirm ;  and 
we  can  show  neither  how  nor  why."  3 

1  Select  Works,  479. 

2  Complete  Works,  II.,  65. 
8  Ibid.,  I.,  204. 


104    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Such  parallelisms  of  thought  and  at  times 
of  language  strengthen  the  belief  in  the  indebt 
edness  of  Emerson  to  Plotinus'  account  of 
philosophic  mysticism.  But  such  indebted 
ness  does  not  preclude  the  genuineness  of  Em 
erson's  own  experience.  His  mind  was  in 
constant  tension  in  the  endeavor  to  describe  its 
own  feelings;  and  to  no  experience  does  he 
more  often  refer  than  to  the  divine  moments 
of  intuition.  The  range  of  the  intuition  is 
a  wide  one;  it  embraces  at  its  highest  ecstasy, 
trance,  and  prophetic  inspiration,  and  at  its 
lowest  "the  faintest  glow  of  virtuous  emo 
tion."  1  In  recording  this  milder  form  of 
the  experience  Emerson  was  but  describing 
his  own  psychological  states,  but  into  his  ac 
count  he  imports  many  facts  which  Plotinus 
had  recorded.  And  in  a  degree,  impossible 
now  to  indicate,  Emerson  made  them  facts  of 
his  own  experience.  It  was  his  way  to  live 
out  his  teachings  before  he  proclaimed  them. 
Still  the  record  reveals  the  traces  of  his  read 
ing  and  study. 

A  good  instance  of  this  blend  of  alien 
thought  with  his  own  experience  is  to  be  found 
in  a  personal  feeling  which  he  enjoyed  in  the 
presence  of  certain  aspects  of  nature.  "Starid- 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  281. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  105 

ing  on  the  bare  ground,"  he  tells  us,  "my  head 
bathed  by  the  blithe  air  and  uplifted  into  in 
finite  space — all  mean  egotism  vanishes.  I 
become  a  transparent  eyeball;  I  am  nothing; 
I  see  all ;  the  currents  of  the  Universal  Being 
circulate  through  me;  I  am  part  or  parcel  of 
God.  The  name  of  the  nearest  friend  sounds 
then  foreign  and  accidental:  to  be  brothers, 
to  be  acquaintances,  master  or  servant,  is  then 
a  trifle  and  a  disturbance.  I  am  the  lover  of 
uncontained  and  immortal  beauty."  1 

In  this  passage  there  are  characteristic 
recollections  of  Platonic  and  Plotinic  concep 
tions.  The  most  startling  expression — "I  be 
come  a  transparent  eyeball" — is  a  rendering 
of  a  sentiment  Emerson  had  noted  in  Plotinus, 
who,  in  order  to  describe  the  manner  of 
knowledge  in  the  intelligible  world,  writes : 
"There,  however,  everybody  is  pure,  and  each 
inhabitant  is,  as  it  were,  an  eye.  Nothing 
likewise  is  there  concealed,  or  fictitious,  but 
before  one  can  speak  to  another,  the  latter 
knows  what  the  former  intended  to  say." 2 
The  identification  of  himself  in  part  with  God 
is  in  keeping  with  what  has  already  been  said 
of  the  complete  union  of  the  soul  with  the 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  10. 

2  Select  Works,  365. 


io6    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

One.  The  fact  that  he  is  "the  lover  of  uncon- 
tained  and  immortal  beauty"  recalls  Plato's 
description  of  the  idea  of  beauty  as  given  in 
the  Banquet:  "It  exists  forever,  being  neither 
produced  nor  destroyed,  and  neither  suffering 
increase  nor  decay  .  .  .  nor  does  it  exist 
in  any  other  being,  such  as  an  animal ;  nor  in 
the  earth,  nor  in  the  heavens,  nor  in  any  other 
part  of  the  universe ;  but  it  subsists  by  and  with 
itself,  and  possesses  a  form  eternally  one."  1 

A  more  vital  use  of  the  doctrines  of  Platon- 
ism  is  found  in  Emerson's  application  of  them 
to  the  realm  of  conduct.  Among  the  ethical 
ideals  which  he  sets  forth  self-reliance  is  cen 
tral.  It  is  central  because  it  is  a  deduction 
from  the  reality  of  the  mystical  experience  in 
the  soul.  The  essence  of  that  state  lies  in  the 
identification  of  the  soul  with  the  Divine;  the 
soul  shares  the  power  of  the  Divine;  it  is 
strong  with  the  same  strength.  And  the  chief 
characteristic  of  the  divine  One,  according  to 
Plotinus,  is  its  self-sufficiency;  it  is  in  need  of 
nothing,  but  exists  alone  in  itself.  "That 
which  is  perfectly  simple,"  says  Plotinus  of 
the  One,  "and  truly  self-sufficient,  is  not  in 
want  of  any  thing."  2  "For  it  does  not  seek 

1  Bohn  translation,  III.,  552-553- 

2  Select  Works,  440. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  107 

after  any  thing  in  order  that  it  may  be,  nor  in 
order  that  it  may  be  in  an  excellent  condition, 
nor  that  it  may  be  there  established.  For  be 
ing  the  cause  of  existence  to  other  things,  and 
not  deriving  that  which  it  is  from  others,  nor 
its  happiness,  what  addition  can  be  made  to 
it  external  to  itself?  Hence  its  happiness,  or 
the  excellency  of  its  condition,  is  not  acci 
dental  to  it.  For  it  is  itself  [all  that  is  suffi 
cient  to  itself].  There  is  not  likewise  any 
place  for  it.  For  it  is  not  in  want  of  a  foun 
dation,  as  if  it  were  not  able  to  sustain  itself. 
.  .  .  But  other  things  are  established  on 
account  of  the  one,  through  which  also  they 
at  the  same  time  subsist,  and  have  the  place 
in  which  they  are  arranged.  .  *  .  Every 
thing  which  is  said  to  be  indigent,  is  indigent 
of  a  good  condition,  and  of  that  which  pre 
serves  it.  Hence  to  the  one  nothing  is  good, 
and,  therefore,  neither  is  the  wish  for  anything 
good  to  it.  But  it  is  super-good.  And  it  is 
not  good  to  itself,  but  to  other  things,  which 
are  able  to  participate  of  it."  1 

Adhering  to  such  teachings,  Emerson  came 
to  ground  his  doctrine  of  self-reliance  on  the 
reality  of  the  mystic  experience  in  which  the 
One  imparts  its  nature  to  all  things  which  are 

1  Select  Works,  487-489. 


io8    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

resolved  into  it.  Thus  he  writes  in  his  essay, 
Self-Reliance :  "This  is  the  ultimate  fact 
which  we  so  quickly  reach  on  this,  as  on  every 
topic,  the  resolution  of  all  into  the  ever-blessed 
One.  Self-existence  is  the  attribute  of  the 
Supreme  Cause,  and  it  constitutes  the  measure 
of  good  by  the  degree  in  which  it  enters  into 
all  lower  forms.  All  things  real  are  so  by  so 
much  virtue  as  they  contain.  Commerce, 
husbandry,  hunting,  whaling,  war,  eloquence, 
personal  weight,  are  somewhat,  and  engage 
my  respect  as  examples  of  its  presence  and  im 
pure  action.  I  see  the  same  law  working  in 
nature  for  conservation  and  growth.  Power 
is,  in  nature,  the  essential  measure  of  right. 
Nature  suffers  nothing  to  remain  in  her  king 
doms  which  cannot  help  itself.  The  genesis 
and  maturation  of  a  planet,  its  poise  and  orbit, 
the  bended  tree  recovering  itself  from  the 
strong  wind,  the  vital  resources  of  every  ani 
mal  and  vegetable,  are  demonstrations  of  the 
self-sufficing  and  therefore  self-relying  soul."  * 
In  this  same  experience  Emerson  also  finds 
a  corrective  of  the  doctrine  of  indifferency. 
Into  this  state  of  mind  he  is  led  by  a  too  literal 
application  to  the  realm  of  conduct  of  the 
Pythagorean  notion  of  antagonism.  Such  a 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  70-71. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  109 

theory  taught  that  the  harmony  of  the  universe 
resulted  from  the  mutual  opposition  of  antago 
nistic  forces.  Blending  the  notion  with  the 
idea  of  a  microcosm,  Emerson  came  to  hold 
that  "the  true  doctrine  of  omnipresence  is  that 
God  reappears  with  all  his  parts  in  every 
moss  and  cobweb.  The  value  of  the  universe 
contrives  to  throw  itself  into  every  point.  If 
the  good  is  there,  so  is  the  evil;  if  the  affinity, 
so  the  repulsion;  if  the  force,  so  the  limita 
tion."  1  The  logical  outcome  of  such  teach 
ing  he  sees  to  be  indifferency.  "Thus  do  all 
things  preach  the  indifferency  of  circum 
stances.  The  man  is  all.  Everything  has  two 
sides,  a  good  and  an  evil.  Every  advantage 
has  its  tax.  I  learn  to  be  content.  But  the 
doctrine  of  compensation  is  not  the  doctrine 
of  indifferency.  The  thoughtless  say,  on  hear 
ing  these  representations — What  boots  it  to  do 
well?  there  is  one  event  to  good  and  evil;  if 
I  gain  any  good  I  must  pay  for  it;  if  I  lose 
any  good  I  gain  some  other;  all  actions  are 
indifferent."  2 

But  Emerson  cannot  rest  thus  on  the  surface 
of  things;  he  looks  beyond  the  world  of  cir 
cumstantial  good  and  evil  to  the  inward  world 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  101-102. 

2  Ibid.,  II.,  120. 


i  io    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

of  the  soul  and  there  finds  the  solution  of  the 
question  in  the  presence  of  the  Divine  which 
gives  the  soul  its  life.  "There  is  a  deeper  fact 
in  the  soul,"  he  writes,  "than  compensation,  to- 
wit,  its  own  nature.  The  soul  is  not  a  com 
pensation,  but  a  life.  The  soul  is.  Under  all 
this  running  sea  of  circumstance,  whose  waters 
ebb  and  flow  with  perfect  balance,  lies  the 
aboriginal  abyss  of  real  Being.  Essence,  or 
God,  is  not  a  relation  or  a  part,  but  the  whole. 
Being  is  the  vast  affirmative,  excluding  nega 
tion,  self-balanced,  and  swallowing  up  all 
relations,  parts  and  times  within  itself.  Na 
ture,  truth,  virtue,  are  the  influx  from  thence. 
Vice  is  the  absence  or  departure  of  the  same."  * 
This  transference  of  the  question  from  an 
outward  world  to  an  inward  one  recognizes 
the  truth  which  Plotinus  teaches  concerning 
eternity.  Eternity  is  identified  with  true  be 
ing  and  "is  the  same  with  deity." 2  "Indeed, 
he  who  surveys  an  abundant  power  collected 
into  one,"  adds  Plotinus,  "according  to  this 
particular  thing  which  is  as  it  were  a  subject, 
he  denominates  it  essence;  afterwards,  so  far 
as  he  beholds  life  in  it,  he  denominates  it  mo 
tion;  and  in  the  next  place,  he  calls  it  perma- 

1  Ibid.,  II.,  120-121. 

2  Select  Works,  188. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  in 

nency,  so  far  as  it  entirely  possesses  an 
invariable  sameness  of  subsistence.  And  he 
denominates  it  different  and  the  same,  so  far 
as  all  these  are  at  once  one.  Thus,  therefore, 
composing  these,  so  as  to  be  at  once  one  life 
alone,  contracting  in  them  difference,  and  be 
holding  an  unceasing  sameness  of  energy,  and 
which  never  passes  from  one  intelligence  or 
life  to  another,  but  always  possesses  the  invari 
able,  and  is  without  interval;  beholding  all 
these,  he  will  behold  eternity.  For  he  will 
perceive  life  abiding  in  sameness,  and  always 
possessing  everything  present,  and  not  at  one 
time  this,  and  afterwards  another  thing,  but 
|  containing  all  things  at  once,  and  not  now 
some  things,  and  again  others.  For  it  is  an 
impartible  end;  just  as  in  a  point  where  all 
things  subsist  at  once,  and  have  not  yet  pro 
ceeded  into  a  [linear]  flux.  It  likewise 
abides  in  the  same,  i.  e.,  in  itself,  and  does  not 
suffer  any  change.  But  it  is  always  in  the 
present,  because  nothing  of  it  is  past,  nor 
again  will  be  in  future,  but  this  very  thing 
which  it  is,  it  always  is."  * 

Opposed  to  this  conception  of  being  Emer 
son  places  vice,  which  he  identifies  with  non- 
being.  "Vice  is  the  absence  or  departure  of 

*Ibid.f  181-182. 


U2  THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

the  same  [that  is,  of  being].  Nothing,  False 
hood,  may  indeed  stand  as  the  great  Night  or 
shade  on  which  as  a  background  the  living 
universe  paints  itself  forth,  but  no  fact  is  be 
gotten  by  it;  it  cannot  work  for  it  is  not.  It 
cannot  work  any  good;  it  cannot  work  any 
harm.  It  is  harm  inasmuch  as  it  is  worse  not 
to  be  than  to  be."  1 

Such  a  conception  reflects  the  views  of  the 
Platonists  on  matter,  which  is  the  farthest  re 
moved  from  true  being.  "Since  matter  is 
neither  soul  nor  intellect,"  says  Plotinus,  "nor 
life,  nor  form,  nor  reason,  nor  bound;  for  it 
is  infinite;  nor  power;  for  what  can  it  effect; 
but  falls  off  from  all  these,  neither  can  it 
rightly  receive  the  appellation  of  being.  But 
it  may  deservedly  be  called  non-being.  .  .  . 
It  likewise  seems  to  be  full  and  to  be  all  things, 
and  yet  has  nothing.  But  the  things  which 
enter  into  and  depart  from  matter,  are  imita 
tions  and  images  of  [real]  beings,  flowing 
about  a  formless  resemblance;  and  on  account 
of  its  formless  nature  are  seen  within  it. 
They  also  appear,  indeed,  to  effect  something 
in  it,  but  effect  nothing;  for  they  are  vain  and 
debile,  and  have  no  resisting  power.  And 
since  matter,  likewise,  is  void  of  resistance, 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  121. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  113 

they  pervade  without  dividing  it,  like  images 
in  water,  or  as  if  some  one  should  send  as  it 
were  forms  into  what  is  called  a  vacuum.1 
.  .  .  So  that  if  someone  should  say  that 
matter  is  evil,  he  will  assert  what  is  true,  if  he 
says  it  is  impassive  to  the  good,  which  is  the 
same  thing  as  to  say,  that  it  is  entirely  impas 
sive."  2 

It  is  in  these  conceptions  of  the  nature  of 
being  and  non-being,  then,  that  Emerson  finds 
the  solution  of  the  question  of  compensation. 
The  law  is  not  one  of  indifferency  based  on  the 
theory  that  "there  is  one  event  to  good  and 
evil;  if  I  gain  any  good  I  must  pay  for  it;  if 
I  lose  any  good  I  gain  some  other";  the  law 
works  in  the  spiritual  world  in  a  positive  way. 
If  the  criminal  adheres  to  his  vice  and  con 
tumacy,  "inasmuch  as  he  carries  the  malignity 
and  the  lie  with  him  he  so  far  deceases  from 
nature."  3  "Neither  can  it  be  said,"  Emerson 
adds,  "that  the  gain  of  rectitude  must  be 
bought  by  any  loss.  There  is  no  penalty  to 
virtue;  no  penalty  to  wisdom;  they  are  proper 
additions  of  being.  In  a  virtuous  action  I 
properly  am;  in  a  virtuous  act  I  add  to  the 

1  Select  Works,  142-144. 

2  Ibid.,  153- 

3  Complete  Works,  II.,  121. 


114    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

world;  I  plant  into  deserts  conquered  from 
Chaos  and  Nothing  and  see  darkness  receding 
on  the  limits  of  the  horizon."  l  "There  is  no 
tax  on  the  good  of  virtue,  for  that  is  the  in 
coming  of  God  himself,  or  absolute  existence, 
without  any  comparative."  2 

In  such  a  manner  does  Emerson  use  the 
tenets  of  Platonism  to  explain  the  working  of 
the  great  law  of  compensation  which  had  held 
his  attention  from  early  boyhood.  He  begins 
his  reasoning  on  the  low  level  of  outward  cir 
cumstances  which  he  is  led  to  interpret  from 
the  standpoint  of  two  theories  embodied  in 
the  composite  Platonism  which  he  holds — the 
Pythagorean  theory  of  the  world  as  a  harmony 
of  mutually  antagonistic  elements  and  the 
Platonic  notion  of  the  microcosm.  Each 
suggestion  he  develops  to  the  full,  but  when 
they  lead  him  to  a  logical  outcome  of  the  in- 
differency  of  all  moral  conduct,  he  calls  a  halt 
and  saves  himself  by  introducing  an  idea  of 
higher  power,  the  doctrine  of  absolute  being 
and  non-being,  which  by  the  Platonists  were 
identified  with  the  good  and  the  evil  in  the 
inward  life.  In  this  ascension  the  essay, 
Compensation,  ends,  with  the  idea  of  compen- 

1  Ibid.,  II.,  122. 

•ML 


THE  OVER-SOUL  115 

sation  mysticized  into  the  doctrine  of  the  pres 
ence  or  the  absence  of  the  Divine  in  man  as 
the  index  of  virtue  or  vice. 

This  result  means  the  final  relegation  of  the 
Pythagorean  element  in  Emerson's  Platonism 
to  a  subordinate  place.  A  love  of  contrasts 
and  of  a  conception  of  unity  arising  out  of 
diverse  elements  had  led  Emerson  to  over 
develop  the  Pythagorean  notion  of  the  uni 
verse  as  a  harmony  of  antagonistic  elements. 
Plato,  it  is  true,  uses  the  categories  of  the 
Pythagoreans,  but  not  to  the  extent  of  justify 
ing  the  prominence  that  Emerson  gave  to  the 
notion  in  his  conception  of  Plato's  system; 
nor  does  the  scheme  of  Plotinus  justify  Em 
erson.  It  is  a  clear  case  of  over-statement, 
the  outcome  of  which  speaks  much  for  the 
corrective  influence  played  by  Platonism  in 
Emerson's  thinking;  it  always  lies  near  at 
hand  as  a  body  of  thought  to  guide,  to  suggest, 
or  to  correct  his  thinking. 

Such  a  controlling  influence  does  Platonism 
exert  over  Emerson's  mind  that  he  finds  in  its 
mystical  teachings  a  solution  of  the  questions 
which  the  study  of  the  meaning  of  nature 
raised.  He  had  gone  on  the  assumption  that 
nature  was  so  intimately  allied  with  the  mind 
of  man  that  "undoubtedly  we  have  no  ques- 


ii6    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

tions  to  ask  which  are  unanswerable.  We 
must  trust  the  perfection  of  the  creation  so  far 
as  to  believe  that  whatever  curiosity  the  order 
of  things  has  awakened  in  our  minds,  the  order 
of  things  can  satisfy."  *  If,  then,  a  mystical 
experience  is  the  highest  experience  life  can 
know,  the  highest  truths  concerning  nature  can 
be  known  only  by  virtue  of  such  an  experience. 
Nature,  then,  must  be  mysticized. 

As  has  been  noted  already,  the  method  of 
nature  is  presented  by  Emerson  as  an  eternal 
flux  or  change  due  to  a  superabundance  of 
energy  in  a  metaphysical  source.  As  he  views 
this  ceaseless  energy  he  calls  it  by  the  name 
which  Plotinus  had  given  to  the  mystic  ex 
perience.  Plotinus  describes  the  participant 
in  such  an  experience  as  "being  as  it  were  in 
an  ecstacy,  or  energizing  enthusiastically."  2 
Emerson  applies  the  term  ecstasy  to  the 
method  of  nature.  "In  short,  the  spirit  and 
peculiarity  of  that  impression  nature  makes 
on  us  is  this,  that  it  does  not  exist  to  any  one 
or  to  any  number  of  particular  ends,  but  to  a 
numberless  and  endless  benefit;  that  there  is 
in  it  no  private  will,  no  rebel  leaf  or  limb,  but 
the  whole  is  oppressed  by  one  superincumbent 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  3-4. 

2  Select  Works,  503. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  117 

tendency,  obeys  that  redundancy  or  excess  of 
life  which  in  conscious  beings  we  call 
ecstasy"  1 

When  Emerson  retired  to  Nantasket  Beach 
to  write  The  Method  of  Nature  he  took  with 
him  Plato's  Phcedrus,  Meno,  and  Banquet, 
which  he  diligently  read.  He  also  had  with 
him  Proclus,  Ocellus  Lucanus  and  certain 
Pythagorean  Fragments,  either  those  of  De- 
mophilus,  or  those  to  be  found  in  the  Life  of 
Pythagoras  by  lamblichus.2  It  is  natural, 
then,  to  expect  a  decided  influence  in  his  essay 
of  such  reading. 

Now  Ocellus  Lucanus,  in  a  short  treatise, 
set  forth  the  eternal  nature  of  the  universe  as 
it  was  understood  by  the  Platonists.  "It  is 
credible,"  he  says,  "that  the  universe  is  with 
out  beginning,  and  without  an  end,  from  its 
figure,  from  motion,  from  time  and  its 
essence;  and,  therefore,  it  may  be  concluded 
that  the  world  is  unbegotten  and  incorrupti 
ble:  for  the  form  of  its  figure  is  circular;  but 
a  circle  is  on  all  sides  similar  and  equal,  and 
is,  therefore,  without  a  beginning,  and  without 
an  end.  The  motion,  also,  of  the  universe  is 
circular,  but  this  motion  is  stable  and  without 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  203-204. 

2  Ibid.,  IV.,  310. 


n8  THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

transition.  Time,  likewise,  in  which  motion 
exists  is  infinite,  for  this  neither  had  a  begin 
ning,  nor  will  have  an  end  of  its  circulation. 
The  essence,  too,  of  the  universe  is  without 
egression  [into  any  other  place],  and  is  im 
mutable,  because  it  is  not  naturally  adapted 
to  be  changed,  either  from  the  worse  to  the 
better,  or  from  the  better  to  the  worse.  From 
all  these  arguments,  therefore,  it  is  obviously 
credible  that  the  world  is  unbegotten  and  in 
corruptible."  1 

Such  a  conception  was  easily  caught  up  by 
Emerson.  It  taught  the  eternity  of  nature 
whose  operations  indicated  a  ceaseless  round 
of  energizing.  Emerson's  adherence  to  the 
truth  of  the  correlation  of  matter  and  mind 
made  it  easy  to  transfer  the  idea  of  ecstasy, 
which  strictly  applies  to  conscious  beings,  to 
the  method  of  nature.  He  thus  speaks  of 
nature  as  "a  work  of  ecstasy,  to  be  represented  > 
by  a  circular  movement,  as  intention  might  be  : 
signified  by  a  straight  line  of  definite  length."  2 

But  this  application  of  the  doctrine  of  cor 
relation  leads  to  a  palpable  over-statement. 
Usually,  Emerson  argues  from  a  law  of 
nature  to  a  law  of  mind;  but  in  this  case  he 

1  On  the  Nature  of  the  Universe,  S-g. 

2  Complete  Works,  I.,  201. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  119 

has  done  the  reverse.  Ecstasy  is  attributed  to 
nature  and  not  deduced  from  her  method.  It 
is  true  that  in  the  opening  of  his  essay  he 
approaches  the  subject  in  his  usual  manner  of 
studying  nature  for  what  it  reveals  of  the 
mind,  but  in  reality  it  is  the  idea  of  ecstasy 
as  a  law  of  the  mind  that  forms  the  true  sub 
ject  of  his  work.  Its  closing  part  thus  shows 
how  there  is  no  function  or  office  in  man  but 
is  rightly  discharged  by  this  divine  method. 
True  science  is  ecstatic.  In  the  pursuit  of 
virtue  he  who  aims  at  progress  should  aim  at 
an  infinite,  not  a  special  benefit.  The  law  of 
ecstasy  holds  also  in  love,  in  genius,  and  in 
history.  Filled  with  the  idea,  then,  he 
strained  truth  somewhat  in  boldly  teaching 
ecstasy  as  the  law  of  nature. 

Emerson  is  more  successful  in  identifying 
man  and  nature  when  he  describes  the  mystic 
experience.  A  complete  union  of  the  soul  of 
man  with  the  Divine  means  an  absolute  one 
ness  of  man  with  all  things  as  well.  "In  that 
deep  force,"  he  writes,  "the  last  fact  behind 
which  analysis  cannot  go,  all  things  find  their 
common  origin.  For  the  sense  of  being 
which  in  calm  hours  rises,  we  know  not  how, 
in  the  soul,  is  not  diverse  from  things,  from 
space,  from  light,  from  time,  from  man,  but 


120    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

one  with  them,  and  proceeds  obviously  from 
the  same  source  whence  their  life  and  being 
also  proceed.  We  first  share  the  life  by  which 
things  exist  and  afterwards  see  them  as  appear 
ances  in  nature  and  forget  that  we  have  shared 
their  cause."  l 

This  is  a  conception  of  being  which  Plotinus 
had  taught  him  to  appreciate.  "This  is  that 
which  is  entirely  being,"  writes  Plotinus; 
"and  this  again  is  that  which  in  no  respect  is 
deficient  in  existence.  But  since  it  is  per 
fectly  being,  it  is  not  in  want  of  any  thing  in 
order  that  it  may  be  preserved  and  be,  but  to 
other  things  which  appear  to  be,  it  is  the 
cause  of  their  apparent  existence.  ...  It 
is  necessary,  however,  that  it  should  be  per 
fectly  being.  Hence  it  is  requisite  it  should 
accede  to  existence,  possessing  all  things  in 
itself,  and  being  at  once  all  things,  and  one 
all,  if  by  these  peculiarities  we  define  being."  2 

The  mysticism  of  Plotinus  was  also  effective 
in  providing  another  solution  of  the  question 
of  the  origin  of  the  outward  universe.  When 
we  ask  the  questions,  Whence  is  matter?  and 
Whereto?  we  learn,  so  Emerson  tells  us,  "that 
the  highest  is  present  to  the  soul  of  man; 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  64. 

2  Select  Works,  137-138. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  121 

that  the  dread  universal  essence,  which  is  not 
wisdom,  or  love,  or  beauty,  or  power,  but  all 
in  one,  and  each  entirely,  is  that  for  which 
all  things  exist,  and  that  by  which  they 
are;  that  spirit  creates;  that  behind  nature, 
throughout  nature,  spirit  is  present;  one  and 
not  compound  it  does  not  act  upon  us  from 
without,  that  is,  in  space  and  time,  but  spirit 
ually,  or  through  ourselves:  therefore,  that 
spirit,  that  is,  the  Supreme  Being,  does  not 
build  up  nature  around  us,  but  puts  it  forth 
through  us,  as  the  life  of  the  tree  puts  forth 
new  branches  and  leaves  through  the  pores  of 
the  old."  1 

In  such  a  statement  is  recognized  the  teach 
ing  of  Plotinus  regarding  the  creative  power 
of  souls.  "It  is  requisite,"  he  holds,  "that 
there  should  not  only  be  souls,  but  that  their 
effects  also  should  have  a  perspicuous  subsist 
ence  (since  every  nature  possesses  an  essential 
ability  of  producing  something  posterior  to 
itself,  and  of  unfolding  it  into  light  from  its 
occult  subsistence  in  dormant  power),  and 
this  as  if  from  a  certain  indivisible  principle 
and  seed,  proceeding  to  a  sensible  extremity, 
while  that  which  has  a  priority  of  subsistence 
always  abides  in  its  proper  seat,  but  that  which 

1  Complete  Works,  L,  63-64. 


122    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

is  consequent  is  generated  from  an  ineffable 
power,  such  as  belongs  to  superior  beings,  and 
is  the  proper  characteristic  of  their  nature."  1 

A  similar  explanation  Plotinus  gives  in  his 
doctrine  of  the  emanation  of  all  things  from 
the  One.  Of  the  One  he  writes:  "What 
shall  we  say  he  is?  The  power  of  all  things, 
without  whose  subsistence  the  universality  of 
things  would  never  have  had  a  being;  nor 
would  intellect  have  been,  which  is  the  first 
and  universal  life;  for  that  which  subsists 
above  life  is  the  cause  of  life:  since  energy  of 
life,  which  is  all  things,  is  not  the  first,  but 
emanates  from  this  principle  as  its  ineffable 
fountain.  .  .  .  Or  conceive  the  life  of  a 
mighty  tree,  propagating  itself  through  the 
whole  tree,  the  principle  at  the  same  time  re 
maining  without  being  divided  through  the 
whole,  but,  as  it  were,  established  in  the  root; 
this,  then,  will  afford  an  universal  and  abun 
dant  life  to  the  tree,  but  will  abide  itself,  with 
out  multiplication,  and  subsisting  as  the 
principle  of  multitude."  2 

As  a  result  of  the  doctrine  of  emanation, 
Emerson  regards  nature  as  a  perpetual  effect. 
She  is  passive  to  the  presence  of  the  Divine 

1  Five  Books  of  Plotinus,  275-276. 

2  Ibid.,  237-238. 


THE  OVER-SOUL  123 

power  just  as  man  should  be;  her  passiveness 
corresponds  to  man's  humility.  "The  aspect 
of  Nature  is  devout,"  Emerson  holds.  "Like 
the  figure  of  Jesus,  she  stands  with  bended 
head,  and  hands  folded  upon  the  breast.  The 
happiest  man  is  he  who  learns  from  nature 
the  lesson  of  worship.'7 1 

Such  conceptions  reflect  the  teachings  of 
Plotinus.  His  system  had  ended  in  establish 
ing  the  absolute  self-sufficiency  of  the  One 
as  well  as  the  absolute  nonentity  of  matter. 
Between  these  two  extremes  was  a  series  of 
beings  who  owe  all  their  life  to  a  power  over 
them  of  which  the  One  is  the  ultimate  source. 
By  submission,  then,  matter  was  endowed  with 
quality  and  so  likewise  soul.  And  though  the 
life  of  the  soul  seems  an  upward  progress 
with  a  union  of  itself  with  the  One  as  its  end, 
yet  in  reality  this  progress  is  made  by  ridding 
itself  of  all  its  characteristic  life  in  order  to 
unite  itself  with  the  Divine.  Submission, 
therefore,  becomes  the  one  necessary  condition 
on  which  nature  and  man  can  hope  to  have 
being:  for  their  life  is  given  to  them  by  this 
Over-Soul. 

In  the  treatment  of  the  Over-Soul  we  can 
appreciate  the  hold  which  the  system  of 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  61. 


124    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Plotinus  had  upon  Emerson's  way  of  thought. 
Toward  the  end  of  Nature  he  reviews  his 
attempts  to  explain  matter  and  he  finds  them 
deficient.  The  theories  of  symbolism  and 
correlation  of  mind  and  matter  did  not  suffice. 
They  suggested  spirit,  but  they  left  God  out 
of  him.  In  other  words,  he  finds  these  ideal 
istic  theories  inadequate  to  explain  the  mean 
ing  of  the  universe ;  idealism  is  but  "a  useful 
introductory  hypothesis,  serving  to  apprize  us 
of  the  eternal  distinction  between  soul  and  the 
world."  *  It  is  to  mysticism,  then,  that  he 
turns  for  the  final  solution. 

Mysticism  thus  becomes  the  most  important 
element  in  Emerson's  Platonism.  In  his  re 
view  of  Plato  he  notes  the  absence  of  this  ele 
ment  in  Plato's  work.  Yet  he  holds  that 
"mysticism  finds  in  Plato  all  its  texts ;" 2  and 
he  agrees  with  the  Platonists  in  making  Plato 
do  honor  to  the  ineffable  One,  which  it  is  the 
object  of  mysticism  to  realize  in  the  experience 
of  man.  But  Emerson  does  not  find  Plato 
teaching  this  doctrine,  for  he  remarks  of 
him,  "he  never  writes  in  ecstasy,  or  catches 
us  up  into  poetic  raptures." 3  This  mystic 

1  Complete  Works,  L,  63. 

2  Ibid.,  IV.,  40. 
*Ibid.,  IV.,  61. 


INTELLECT  125 

enjoyment  Plotinus  afforded  him.  It  was 
natural,  then,  that  he  should  find  Plotinus  the 
great  need  of  his  life  at  one  time;  for  in  him 
he  became  acquainted  with  a  scheme  of 
thought  in  which  mysticism  of  the  purest  in 
tellectual  type  was  taught. 


II. 

INTELLECT. 

The  mysticism  of  Plotinus  is  a  rational 
mysticism;  it  arises  as  a  logical  result  of  a 
purely  rational  conception  of  knowledge.  It 
is  an  experience  which  intellect  enjoys,  intel 
lect  being  the  principle  of  soul  next  in  order 
to  the  One,  or  the  principle  of  unity.  Thus  it 
comes  about  that  Plotinus  and  the  Platonists 
have  much  to  say  of  intellect.  And  as  teach 
ers  of  the  intellect  Emerson  esteems  the 
Platonists  most  highly. 

In  his  primary  conception  of  intellect  Em 
erson  is  one  with  the  Platonists.  "How  can 
we  speak  of  the  action  of  the  mind  under  any 
divisions,  as  of  its  knowledge,  of  its  ethics,  of 
its  works,  and  so  forth,  since  it  melts  will  into 
perception,  knowledge  into  act?  Each  be 
comes  the  other.  Itself  alone  is.  Its  vision 


126     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

is  not  like  the  vision  of  the  eye,  but  is  union 
with  the  things  known."  l  Such  is  the  teach 
ing  of  Plotinus  also.  Describing  intellect,  he 
writes  in  a  sentence,  a  part  of  which  Emer 
son  appropriates,  "It  likewise  alone  is,  and  is 
always,  but  is  never  future;  for  when  the 
future  arrives,  it  then  also  is;  nor  is  it  the 
past."  2  He  furthermore  holds :  "Whatever 
it  possesses,  it  possesses  from  itself.  But  if 
it  perceives  intellectually  by  and  from  itself,  it 
is  itself  that  which  it  perceives."  3 

Emerson  also  agrees  with  the  teaching  of 
Platonism  in  holding  that  all  thought  is  but  a 
reception  rather  than  a  self-directed  activity  of 
the  mind  from  within  outward.  "Our  think 
ing,"  he  holds,  "is  a  pious  reception.  Our 
truth  of  thought  is  therefore  vitiated  as  much 
by  too  violent  direction  given  by  our  will,  as 
by  too  great  negligence.  We  do  not  deter 
mine  what  we  will  think.  We  only  open  our 
senses,  clear  away  as  well  as  we  can  all  ob 
struction  from  the  fact,  and  suffer  the  intellect 
to  see." 4  More  explicitly,  thought  "is  the 
advent  of  truth  into  the  world,  a  form  of 
thought  now  for  the  first  time  bursting  into 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  323. 

z  Select  Works,  263. 

8  Ibid.,  292. 

4  Complete  Works,  II.,  328. 


INTELLECT  127 

the  universe,  a  child  of  the  old  eternal  soul, 
a  piece  of  genuine  and  immeasurable  great 


ness." 


In  the  manner  in  which  according  to  Ploti- 
nus  the  One  gives  birth  to  Intellect  is  found 
the  method  of  reasoning  which  Emerson  uses 
in  describing  all  thinking  as  reception.  The 
One  is  self-sufficient  and,  therefore,  is  in  need 
of  no  creatures  for  its  own  satisfaction.  And 
yet  it  possesses  such  superabundant  energy 
that  it  overflows;  and  this  overflow  constitutes 
potential  intellect.  "For  the  one"  writes 
Plotinus,  "being  perfect,  in  consequence  of  not 
seeking  after,  or  possessing,  or  being  in  want 
of  anything,  it  becomes  as  it  were  overflow 
ing,  and  the  super-plenitude  of  it  produces 
something  else.  That,  however,  which  is  gen 
erated  from  it  is  converted  to  it,  and  is  filled, 
and  was  generated  looking  to  it.  But  this  is 
intellect."  2  Thus  conversion  to  the  One  con 
stitutes  the  essence  of  intellect;  the  state 
previous  to  this  conversion  can  be  only  po 
tentially  intellectual.  And  this  conversion  to 
the  One  is  what  Emerson  means  in  his  teach 
ing  that  all  thought  is  but  a  pious  reception. 

At  the  same  time  that  Emerson  views  think- 


> 


d.,  II.,  335- 
2  Select  Works,  398. 


ia8     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

ing  as  a  pious  reception,  he  also  describes  it 
as  an  ascending  process  of  mind  in  search  of 
an  absolute  cause.  This  is  the  conception 
underlying  his  essay,  Circles.  "Our  life,"  he 
says,  "is  an  apprenticeship  to  the  truth  that 
around  every  circle  another  can  be  drawn ; 
that  there  is  no  end  in  nature,  but  every  end  is 
/  a  beginning;  that  there  is  always  another 
dawn  risen  on  mid-noon,  and  under  every 
deep  a  lower  deep  opens."  1 

It  is  the  same  process  that  Plato  and  the 
Platonists  call  the  dialectic,  or  the  ascension 
of  mind  from  particulars  to  universals.  "It 
is  requisite,"  observes  Simplicius,  in  the  de 
scription  of  this  process  of  mind,  which  Emer 
son  had  marked  in  his  copy  of  Proclus,  "that 
he  who  ascends  to  the  principle  of  things 
should  investigate  whether  it  is  possible  there 
can  be  anything  better  than  the  supposed 
principle;  and  if  something  more  excellent  is 
found,  the  same  inquiry  should  again  be  made 
respecting  that,  till  we  arrive  at  the  highest 
conceptions,  than  which  we  have  no  longer 
any  more  venerable.  Nor  should  we  stop  in 
our  ascent  till  we  find  this  to  be  the  case. 
For  there  is  no  occasion  to  fear  that  our  pro 
gression  will  be  through  an  unsubstantial 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  301. 


INTELLECT  129 

void,  by  conceiving  something  about  the  first 
principles  which  is  greater  and  more  tran 
scendent  than  their  nature.  For  it  is  not  pos 
sible  for  our  conceptions  to  take  such  a  mighty 
leap  as  to  equal,  and  much  less  to  pass  beyond 
the  dignity  of  the  first  principles  of  things.'7 l 

Receptivity  and  the  onward  progress  of  the 
dialectic  seem  inconsistent  ideas.  Both  are 
found,  however,  in  Plotinus.  The  dialectic 
he  inherited  from  Plato  but  the  idea  of  re 
ceptivity  is  one  which  he  was  logically  com 
pelled  to  accept  by  reason  of  his  insistence 
upon  the  nature  of  the  One  as  the  source  of 
all  things  and  yet  as  a  principle  apart  from  all 
things  and  in  no  need  of  them.  Only  by  put 
ting  itself  in  a  passive  state  could  a  being  be 
neath  the  One  receive  its  influence.  The 
life  of  the  intellect  is  thus  a  progress  of  the 
soul  ever  ascending  into  new  realms  but  ever 
divesting  itself  of  all  it  has  received  in  the 
realm  it  has  just  passed  through.  These  two 
ideas — that  of  the  dialectic  and  that  of  thought 
as  reception — Emerson  takes  over  from 
Plotinus  and  makes  no  attempt  to  reconcile 
them.  He  treats  each  as  it  suits  his  purpose. 

Emerson  agrees  with  Platonism  in  teach- 

1  Quoted  in  Proclus,  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  I.,  Intro 
duction,  p.  32. 


130    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

ing  that  intellect  has  power  to  annul  fate. 
Fate  he  finds  everywhere,  "in  matter,  mind, 
morals;  in  race,  in  retardations  of  strata,  and 
in  thought  and  character  as  well."  l  And  by 
fate  he  means  laws  of  the  world,  fate  being 
felt  as  bound  or  limitation.2  But  he  main 
tains:  "Intellect  annuls  fate.  So  far  as  a 
man  thinks,  he  is  free."  3  He  explains  this 
triumph  of  thought  over  fate  more  fully. 
"The  revelation  of  Thought  takes  man  out  of 
servitude  into  freedom.  We  rightly  say  of 
ourselves,  we  were  born  and  afterward  we 
were  born  again,  and  many  times  .  .  . 
The  day  of  days,  the  great  day  of  the  feast  of 
life,  is  that  in  which  the  inward  eye  opens  to 
the  Unity  in  things,  to  the  omnipresence  of 
law : — sees  that  what  is  must  be  and  ought  to 
be,  or  is  the  best  ...  If  truth  come  to 
our  mind  we  suddenly  expand  to  its  dimen 
sions,  as  if  we  grew  to  worlds.  We  are  as 
law-givers ;  we  speak  for  Nature :  we  prophesy 
and  divine."  4 

In  stating  this  doctrine  Emerson  is  follow 
ing  the  argument  of  Proclus  On  Providence 

1  Complete  Works,  VI.,  21. 

2  Ibid.,  VI.,  4,  21-22. 
a  Ibid.f  VI.,  23. 
*Ibid.,  VI,  25. 


INTELLECT  131 

and  Fate.  Proclus'  conception  of  fate  is  one 
with  Emerson's.  "If  therefore,  not  only  in 
us,  and  other  animals  and  plants,"  observes 
Proclus,  "but  in  this  universe  also  much 
prior  to  bodies,  there  is  one  nature  of  the 
world,  which  is  corrective  and  motive  of  the 
subsistence  of  bodies;  as  it  is  also  in  us,  (or 
why  do  we  call  all  bodies  the  progeny  of  na 
ture?),  it  is  indeed  necessary  that  nature 
should  be  the  cause  of  things  that  are  con 
nected,  and  that  in  this  what  we  call  Fate 
should  be  investigated.  And  on  this  account 
perhaps  the  daemoniacal  Aristotle  also  is  ac 
customed  to  call  those  augmentations  or  gen 
erations  which  are  effected  beside  the  accus 
tomed  time,  deviations  from  Fate.  And  the 
divine  Plato  says,  'that  the  world  considered 
by  itself,  without  the  intellectual  Gods,  is  con 
volved  as  being  corporeal  by  Fate  and  innate 
desire.'  The  oracles  of  the  gods  also  accord 
with  these  and  bear  witness  to  our  demonstra 
tions  when  they  say:  'Look  not  upon  Na 
ture,  for  the  name  of  it  is  fatal.'  And  thus 
we  have  discovered  what  Fate  is,  and  how  it  is 
the  nature  of  this  world,  and  a  certain  incor 
poreal  essence."  1  Fate  thus  becomes  identi- 

1  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  II.,  450. 


132    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

fied  with  the  operations  of  nature.  Or  as 
Emerson  puts  it,  "the  book  of  Nature  is  the 
book  of  fate."  1 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  oracle  referred  to 
is  used  by  Emerson.  "It  is  wholesome  to 
man,"  he  observes,  "to  look  not  at  Fate,  but 
the  other  way:  the  practical  view  is  the  other. 
His  sound  relation  to  these  facts  is  to  use  and 
command,  not  to  cringe  to  them.  'Look  not 
on  Nature  for  her  name  is  fatal,'  said  the 
oracle.  The  too  much  contemplation  of  these 
limits  induces  meanness."  2 

Proclus  also  teaches  that  the  way  of  escape 
from  fate  is  through  the  intellectual  activity 
of  the  soul.  "In  short,  we  must  say,"  he 
writes,  "that  the  rational  and  intellectual  soul 
in  whatever  way  it  may  energize,  is  beyond 
body  and  sense;  and  therefore  it  is  necessary 
that  it  should  have  an  essence  separable  from 
both  these.  This,  however,  though  of  itself 
now  evident,  I  will  again  manifest  from 
hence,  that  when  it  energizes  according  to 
nature,  it  is  superior  to  the  influence  of  Fate, 
but  that  when  it  falls  into  sense,  and  becomes 
irrational  and  corporeal,  it  follows  the  natures 
that  are  beneath  it,  and  living  with  them  as 

1  Complete  Works,  VI.,  15. 

2  Ibid.,  VI.,  23. 


INTELLECT  133 

with  intoxicated  neighbours,  is  held  in  subjec 
tion  by  a  cause  that  has  dominion  over  things 
that  are  different  from  the  rational  essence."  1 
And  the  highest  form  of  intellectual  action,  he 
tells  us,  "is  obtained  by  exciting  the  pro 
fundity  of  the  soul,  which  is  no  longer  intel 
lectual,  and  adapting  it  to  union  with  the 
one!' 2  It  is  the  same  mystic  experience  that 
Emerson  refers  to  as  the  day  "in  which  the  in 
ward  eye  opens  to  the  Unity  of  things."  3 

As  an  inference  from  the  superior  power  of 
of  intellect  to  rise  above  the  limitations  of  fate 
Emerson  presents  a  slightly  new  conception  of 
fate.  "Fate  then,"  he  concludes,  "is  a  name 
for  facts  not  yet  passed  under  the  fire  of 
thought;  for  causes  which  are  unpenetrated."  4 
It  is,  however,  in  accordance  with  the  notion 
of  Proclus  who  holds  that  "we  denominate 
that  which  is  evolved  through  many  causes 
complicated  with  each  other  and  unknown  to 
us,  no  otherwise  than  Fate."  5 

Emerson  also  agrees  with  the  Platonists  in 
the  conception  of  the  ascendency  of  intellect 
over  time.  As  Proclus  states  it,  "Every  in- 

1On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  II.,  456. 

*Ibid.,  464. 

8  Complete  Works,  VI.,  25. 

*  Ibid.,  VI.,  31. 

5  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  II.,  447. 


134    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

tellect  has  its  essence,  power  and  energy  in 
eternity."  1  Emerson  shares  the  same  belief 
when  he  states:  "All  our  intellectual  action, 
not  promises  but  bestows  a  feeling  of  absolute 
existence.  We  are  taken  out  of  time  and 
breathe  a  purer  air.  I  know  not  whence  we 
draw  the  assurance  of  prolonged  life,  of  a  life 
which  shoots  that  gulf  we  call  death  and  takes 
hold  of  what  is  real  and  abiding,  by  so  many 
claims  as  from  our  intellectual  history."  2 

On  this  power  of  intellect  Emerson  bases 
his  belief  in  immortality.  "This  is  the  way 
we  rise,"  he  tells  us.  "Within  every  man's 
thought  is  a  higher  thought  —  within  the  char 
acter  he  exhibits  to-day  a  higher  character. 
The  youth  puts  off  the  illusions  of  the  child, 
the  man  puts  off  the  ignorance  and  the  tumul 
tuous  passions  of  youth;  proceeding  thence 
puts  off  the  egotism  of  manhood,  and  be 
comes  at  last  a  public  and  universal  soul.  He 
is  rising  to  greater  heights,  but  also  rising  to 
realities;  the  outer  relations  and  circum 
stances  dying  out,  he  entering  deeper  into 
God,  God  into  him,  until  the  last  garment  of 
egotism  falls,  and  he  is  with  God—  shares  the 


-12. 
2  Complete  Works,  VIII.,  340. 


INTELLECT  135 

will  and  the  immensity  of  the  First  Cause."  1 
It  is  a  way  of  reasoning  that  Plotinus  had 
taught  him.  "Now,  however,  men  perceiv 
ing  that  the  soul  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
human  race  is  defiled  with  vice,  they  do  not 
reason  about  it  either  as  a  divine  or  an  im 
mortal  thing.  But  it  is  necessary,  in  consid 
ering  the  nature  of  everything,  to  direct  our 
attention  to  the  purity  of  it;  since  whatever  is 
added,  is  always  an  impediment  to  the  knowl 
edge  of  that  to  which  it  is  added.  Consider 
the  soul,  therefore,  by  taking  away  [that 
which  is  extraneous]  ;  or  rather,  let  him  who 
takes  this  away  survey  himself,  and  he  will 
believe  himself  to  be  immortal,  when  he  be 
holds  himself  in  the  intelligible  world,  and 
situated  in  a  pure  abode.  For  he  will  per 
ceive  intellect  seeing  not  anything  sensible, 
nor  any  of  these  mortal  objects,  but  by  an 
eternal  power  contemplating  that  which  is 
eternal ;  everything  in  the  intelligible  world, 
and  itself  also  being  then  luminous,  in  conse 
quence  of  being  enlightened  by  the  truth  pro 
ceeding  from  the  good,  which  illuminates  all 
intelligibles  with  reality.  By  such  a  soul  as 
this,  therefore,  it  may  be  properly  said, 

id.,  VIII.,  348-349. 


136     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Farewell,  a  God  immortal  now  am  I, 

having  ascended  to  divinity,  and  earnestly 
striving  to  become  similar  to  him."  1 

A  less  mystic  explanation  of  the  manner  in 
which  intellectual  activity  makes  for  immor 
tality  is  found  in  the  feeling  of  absoluteness 
attendent  upon  the  vision  of  truth.  "Salt," 
Emerson  explains,  "is  a  good  preserver;  cold 
is:  but  a  truth  cures  the  taint  of  mortality  bet 
ter,  and  'preserves  from  harm  until  another 
period.'  A  sort  of  absoluteness  attends  all 
perception  of  truth — no  smell  of  age,  no  hint 
of  corruption.  It  is  self-sufficing,  sound,  en 
tire."  2 

As  the  quotation  Emerson  uses  shows,  the 
idea  is  Plato's.  In  his  Phcedrus  Plato  ex 
plains  how  the  human  soul,  which  is  immor 
tal,  lived  in  the  eternal  world  before  it  ap 
peared  on  earth.  Its  main  care  in  that  world 
was  to  behold  truth.  "And  this  is  the  rea 
son,"  Plato  adds,  "for  the  great  anxiety  to  be 
hold  the  field  of  truth,  where  it  is;  the  proper 
pasture  for  the  best  part  of  the  soul  happens 
to  be  in  the  meadow  there,  and  it  is  the  na 
ture  of  the  wing  by  which  the  soul  is  borne 
aloft,  to  be  nourished  by  it;  and  this  is  a 

1  Select  Works,  243. 

2  Complete  Works,  VIIL,  340. 


INTELLECT  137 

law  of  Adrastia,  that  whatever  soul,  in  ac 
companying  a  deity,  has  beheld  any  of  the 
true  essences,  it  shall  be  free  from  harm  until 
the  next  revolution,  and  if  it  can  always  ac 
complish  this,  it  shall  be  always  free  from 
harm."  1 

Eternity,  then,  in  which  intellect  has  its  be 
ing,  takes  the  place  in  Emerson's  thought  of 
immortality;  it  involves,  as  he  says,  "not  dura 
tion  but  a  state  of  abandonment  to  the  High 
est,  and  so  the  sharing  of  His  perfection."  2 
"Is  immortality,"  he  asks,  "only  an  intellec 
tual  quality,  or,  shall  I  say,  only  an  energy, 
there  being  no  passive?  He  has  it,  and  he 
alone,  who  gives  life  to  all  names,  persons, 
things  where  he  comes.  No  religion,  not  the 
wildest  mythology  dies  for  him;  no  art  is 
lost.  He  vivifies  what  he  touches.  Future 
state  is  an  illusion  for  the  ever-present  state. 
It  is  not  length  of  life,  but  depth  of  life.  It 
is  not  duration,  but  a  taking  of  the  soul  out  of 
time,  as  all  high  action  of  the  mind  does: 
when  we  are  living  in  the  sentiments  we  ask 
no  questions  about  time.  The  spiritual  world 
takes  place — that  which  is  always  the  same."  3 

iBohn  translation,  I.,  324. 
2  Complete  Works,  VIIL,  349. 
s  Ibid.,  347- 


138    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

This  conception  is  identical  with  the  teach 
ing  of  Platonism.  "According  to  the  oracle," 
says  Proclus,  "eternity  is  the  cause  of  never- 
failing  life,  of  unwearied  power,  and  unslug- 
gish  energy.  .  .  .  Eternity  is  the  father 
and  supplier  of  infinite  life;  since  eternity  is 
also  the  cause  of  all  immortality — and  perpe 
tuity.  And  Plotinus,  exhibiting,  in  a  most 
divinely  inspired  manner,  the  peculiarity  of 
eternity,  according  to  the  theology  of  Plato 
defines  it  to  be  infinite  life,  at  once  unfolding 
into  light  the  whole  of  itself,  and  its  own  be 
ing  .  .  .  For  eternity  is  infinite  power 
abiding  in  one,  and  proceeding  stably."  1 

In  his  conception  of  intellect,  then,  Emer 
son  agrees  with  the  teachings  of  Platonism  in 
regarding  the  nature  of  the  intellect's  vision 
as  an  actual  union  with  the  thing  seen,  in  hold 
ing  that  thinking  is  receptivity  and  at  the 
same  time  an  onward  progress  of  the  mind, 
and  in  maintaining  the  triumph  of  intellect 
over  fate  and  time. 

1  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  I.,  190-191. 


THE  WORLD-SOUL  139 


in. 


THE  WORLD-SOUL. 

Thus  far  Emerson  has  spoken  of  soul  as 
present  chiefly  in  the  consciousness  of  men; 
but  he  holds  with  the  Platonists  that  there 
is  a  soul  at  work  in  the  universe  outside  of 
man  as  well  as  in  his  inward  life.  This  is 
with  him  "the  sublime  creed  that  the  world  is 
not  the  product  of  manifold  power,  but  of  one 
will,  of  one  mind;  and  that  one  mind  is  every 
where  active,  in  each  ray  of  the  star,  in  each 
wavelet  of  the  pool;  and  whatever  opposes 
that  will  is  everywhere  balked  and  baffled,  be 
cause  things  are  made  so,  and  not  otherwise."  1 

This  belief  corresponds  to  the  tenet  of  Uni 
versal  Soul  taught  by  Platonism.  Below  the 
One  and  Intellect  is  the  Anima  Mundi,  the 
Universal  Soul,  which  is  the  intermediating 
principle  between  the  world  of  pure  intelli 
gence  and  the  world  of  matter.  "Every  soul," 
writes  Plotinus,  "ought  to  consider  in  the  first 
place,  that  soul  produced  all  animals,  and  in 
spired  them  with  life:  viz.,  those  animals 
which  the  earth  and  sea  nourish,  those  which 
live  in  the  air,  and  the  divine  stars  contained 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  123-124. 


140    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

in  the  heavens.  Soul  also  made  the  sun ;  soul 
made  and  adorned  this  mighty  heaven.  Soul, 
too,  circumvolves  it  in  an  orderly  course,  be 
ing  of  a  nature  different  from  the  things 
which  it  adorns,  which  it  moves,  and  causes  to 
live,  and  is  necessarily  more  honourable  than 
these.  .  .  .  What  the  mode  is,  however, 
by  which  life  is  supplied  to  the  universe,  and 
to  each  of  its  parts,  may  be  considered  to  be 
as  follows :  .  .  .  Let  a  quiet  soul  behold 
that  other  mighty  soul,  externally  as  it  were, 
on  all  sides  flowing  and  infused  into,  pene 
trating  and  illuminating  the  quiescent  mass. 
For  just  as  the  rays  of  the  sun  darting  on  a 
dark  cloud  cause  it  to  become  splendid,  and 
golden  to  the  view,  thus  also,  soul  entering 
into  the  body  of  heaven  gave  it  life,  gave  it  im 
mortality,  and  excited  it  from  its  torpid  state. 
But  heaven  being  moved  with  a  perpetual  mo 
tion,  through  the  guidance  of  a  wise  soul, 
became  a  blessed  animal.  It  also  acquired 
dignity  through  soul  becoming  its  inhabitant, 
since,  prior  to  soul  it  was  a  dead  body,  viz., 
earth  and  water,  or  rather  the  darkness  of  mat 
ter  and  non-entity;  and  as  some  one  says,  'that 
which  the  Gods  abhor.'  "  l 

Emerson  uses  the  conception  of  the  Anima 

1  Select  Works,  256-258. 


THE  WORLD-SOUL  141 

Mundi  in  his  poem,  The  World-Soul.  As  a 
refuge,  from  the  vice  of  men  in  the  centers  of 
wealth  and  trade  he  turns  to  glances  of  a 
spirit  which  haunts  him,  in  the  broad  aspects 
of  nature,  in  human  beings,  in  strains  of 
music.  Its  secret  has  never  been  fully  solved 
but  its  operations  in  the  world  are  constant  and 
relentless.  "But  soul,"  observes  Plotinus, 
speaking  of  the  soul  of  the  world,  "by  the 
power  of  essence  has  dominion  over  bodies  in 
such  a  way,  that  they  are  generated  and  sub 
sist,  just  as  she  leads  them,  since  they  are  un 
able  from  the  first  to  oppose  her  will."  1  Or 
as  Emerson  puts  it: 

"For  Destiny  never  swerves 

Nor  yields  to  men  the  helm; 
He  shoots  his  thoughts,  by  hidden  nerves, 

Throughout  the  solid  realm. 
The  patient  Daemon  sits, 

With  roses  and  a  shroud; 
He  has  his  way,  and  deals  his  gifts  — 

But  ours  is  not  allowed."  2 

In  this  power  Emerson  finds  the  hope  of  the 
world,  which  will  be  fulfilled  in  a  fairer 


345. 
2  Complete  Works,  IX.,  18. 


142     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

world  which  the  world-soul  will  create  out 
of  this  one. 

A  finer  poetic  result  of  Emerson's  musings 
on  the  world-soul  is  to  be  found  in  his  little 
lyric,  Music,  in  which  he  works  out  a  sugges 
tion  he  found  in  a  note  appended  by  Taylor 
to  a  passage  in  Proclus.  Commenting  on  the 
mutual  sympathy  shared  by  all  things  in  the 
universe,  Taylor  remarks  that  he  who  holds  to 
such  a  belief  "will  survey  the  universe  as  one 
great  animal,  all  whose  parts  are  in  union  and 
consent  with  each  other;  so  that  nothing  is 
foreign  and  detached;  nothing,  strictly  speak 
ing,  void  of  sympathy  and  life.  For  though 
parts  of  the  world,  when  considered  as  sep 
arated  from  the  whole,  are  destitute  of  pecul 
iar  life ;  yet  they  possess  some  degree  of  ani 
mation,  however  inconsiderable,  when  viewed 
with  relation  to  the  universe.  Life  indeed 
may  be  compared  to  a  perpetual  and  univer 
sal  sound;  and  the  soul  of  the  world  resem 
bles  a  lyre,  or  some  other  musical  instru 
ment,  from  which  we  may  suppose  this  sound 
to  be  emitted.  But  from  the  unbounded  dif 
fusion  as  it  were  of  the  mundane  soul,  every 
thing  participates  of  this  harmonical  sound,  in 
greater  or  less  perfection,  according  to  the 
dignity  of  its  nature.  So  that  while  life 


THE  WORLD-SOUL  143 

everywhere  resounds,  the  most  abject  of  be 
ings  may  be  said  to  retain  a  faint  echo  of  the 
melody  produced  by  the  mundane  lyre."  1 

In  the  last  sentence  of  this  quotation  is  the 
motif  of  Emerson's  poem,  Music. 

"Let  me  go  where'er  I  will, 
I  hear  a  sky-born  music  still : 
It  sounds  from  all  things  old, 
It  sounds  from  all  things  young, 
From  all  that's  fair,  from  all  that's  foul, 
Peals  out  a  cheerful  song. 

'It  is  not  only  in  the  rose, 

It  is  not  only  in  the  bird, 

Not  only  where  the  rainbow  glows, 

Nor  in  the  song  of  woman  heard, 

But  in  the  darkest,  meanest  things 

There  alway,  alway  something  sings. 

"'Tis  not  in  the  high  stars  alone, 
Nor  in  the  cup  of  budding  flowers, 
Nor  in  the  redbreast's  mellow  tone, 
Nor  in  the  bow  that  smiles  in  showers, 
But  in  the  mud  and  scum  of  things 
There  alway,  alway  something  sings." 

And  thus  it  appears  that  Emerson  follows 

the  Theology  of  Plato,  II.,  395,  note  i. 


H4    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

the  Platonists  in  their  account  of  the  spiritual 
principles  of  the  universe.  His  doctrines  of 
the  Over-soul,  of  Intellect,  of  a  World-Soul 
are  in  general  agreement  with  the  three  prin 
ciples  of  the  Platonists.  But  he  is  not  careful 
to  distinguish  them  scientifically  as  the  Plato 
nists  do ;  they  all  go  to  inform  his  conception 
of  Soul.  Soul  he  thus  finds  everywhere  in  the 
highest  and  lowest  of  created  things ;  but  his 
main  purpose  was  to  assert  its  presence,  the 
presence  of  the  Divine,  in  man,  who  comes  to 
experience  it  in  a  mystical  resolution  of  his 
own  life  into  that  of  the  Divine.  This  is  the 
center  of  Emerson's  thought,  as  it  was  of  Plo- 
tinus',  and  it  shows  itself  in  his  repeated  em 
phasis  upon  the  need  of  soul  in  life.  So  ab 
sorbing  is  this  power  of  soul  that  it  includes 
not  only  the  life  of  man  but  the  very  life  of 
nature. 


CHAPTER  IV 

LOVE  AND  BEAUTY 

A  DISCUSSION  of  love  and  beauty  fig 
ures  somewhat  conspicuously  in  Emer 
son's  work.  In  his  examination  into  the 
meaning  of  nature  he  finds  beauty  serving  a 
noble  want  of  man.  To  this  subject  he  de 
votes  a  separate  essay  in  his  Conduct  of  Life 
and  he  gives  a  poetical  rendering  of  the  theme 
in  the  Ode  to  Beauty.  Likewise  in  his  treat 
ment  of  love,  a  separate  essay  deals  with  the 
question  and  his  poem  Initial,  Dcemonic  and 
Celestial  Love  presents  the  subject  in  a  poeti 
cal  trilogy.  Reference  to  such  topics  is  fre 
quent  in  his  work;  for  as  an  admirer  of  Plato- 
nism  he  came  to  feel  the  inspiration  which  its 
philosophy  of  love  and  beauty  stirs  within  the 
mind  of  all  its  true  students. 

Plenty  of  material  in  his  Platonic  sources 
was  at  hand.  Plato  had  given  impetus  to  the 
discussion  in  his  Banquet  and  Phcedrus.  His 
quickening  influence  is  felt  in  Plutarch,  who 
leaves  a  dialogue  on  love,  and  in  Plotinus 


146    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

whose  discussions  on  beauty,  especially,  are 
of  first  importance  in  the  history  of  aesthetics. 
In  Taylor's  translation  of  a  portion  of  his  En- 
neads,  An  Essay  on  the  Beautiful  (1792), 
Emerson  had  an  available  source.  In  the 
translation  of  the  Select  Works  of  Plotinus  he 
also  found  a  valuable  extract  On  Intelligible 
Beauty,  which  he  carefully  indexed  and  thor 
oughly  digested.  Proclus  in  his  On  the  The 
ology  of  Plato  provided  him  with  an  ex 
position  which  Emerson's  index  shows  was 
one  of  his  "lustres."  In  his  Commentaries  on 
the  Timceus  of  Plato  the  same  author  left 
other  patches  of  theorizing  on  beauty. 
Emerson  availed  himself  of  all  these  sources 
and  in  his  writings  on  love  and  beauty  con 
forms  rather  strictly  to  the  method  of  the 
Platonists. 

His  Initial,  Dcemonic  and  Celestial  Love,  as 
its  title  indicates,  is  a  recognition  of  a  divi 
sion  of  the  subject  which  Plato  had  made  in 
his  Banquet.  There  in  the  speech  of  one  of 
the  characters,  Pausanias,  he  laid  down  the 
distinction  between  a  celestial  love  and  a 
vulgar  love  which  persisted  throughout  the 
entire  course  of  Neo-Platonic  speculation.1 
Through  the  mouth  of  another  speaker,  Soc- 

1  Bohn  translation,  III.,  491. 


rut 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  147 

rates,  who  hands  down  the  idea  of  a  certain 
prophetess,  Diotima,  Plato  also  explains  that 
love  is  "a  great  daemon  .  .  .  and  being 
in  the  middle  space  between  gods  and  men  it 
fills  up  the  whole."  *  Emerson's  Initial, 
Daemonic  and  Celestial  Love  thus  recognizes 
the  distinction  which  Plato  had  made.  In 
developing  the  subject  the  influence  of  Plato- 
nism  makes  itself  felt  especially  in  the  second 
and  third  parts  —  Daemonic  and  Celestial 
Love. 

In  setting  forth  his  conception  of  daemonic 
love  Emerson  avails  himself  of  what  the 
ancients  had  said  about  daemons.  Plato's  ref 
erence  to  these  had  started  a  discussion  among 
the  Platonists,  which  in  Plutarch,  Plotinus, 
lamblichus,  and  Proclus  was  prolific  of  much 
speculation.  The  subject  evidently  attracted 
Emerson  who  fortunately  has  left  an  ab 
stract  of  his  views  as  gathered  from  his 
sources.  "The  ancients  believed,"  he  writes, 
"that  a  genius  or  demon  took  possession  at 
birth  of  each  mortal,  to  guide  him  ;  that  these 
genii  were  sometimes  seen  as  a  flame  of  fire 
partly  immersed  in  the  bodies  which  they  gov 
erned;  on  an  evil  man,  resting  on  his  head;  in 
a  good  man,  mixed  with  his  substance.  They 


148     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

thought  the  same  genius,  at  the  death  of 
its  ward,  entered  a  new  born  child,  and  they 
pretended  to  guess  the  pilot  by  the  sailing  of 
the  ship."  1 

This  is  an  abstract  from  several  sources.  In 
lamblichus'  Mysteries  of  the  Egyptians, 
Chaldeans,  and  Assyrians,  Emerson  found  in 
a  foot  note  by  Taylor  the  remark:  " Accord 
ing  to  the  Egyptians  every  one  received  his 
proper  daemon  at  the  hour  of  his  birth."  2 
And  in  the  text  of  the  same  work  he  had  noted 
that  "there  is  one  daemon  who  is  the  guardian 
and  governor  of  everything  that  is  in  us."  3 
In  Plutarch's  dialogue  A  Discourse  Concern 
ing  Socrates' s  Dcemon,  Emerson  found  an  ac 
count  of  the  connection  between  men  and 
daemons  on  which  he  bases  the  second  part  of 
his  statement.  "Every  soul  doth  not  mix  her 
self  after  one  sort,"  Plutarch  observes,  "for 
some  plunge  themselves  into  the  body,  and  so 
in  this  life  their  whole  frame  is  corrupted  by 
appetite  and  passion;  others  are  mixed  as  to 
some  part,  but  the  purer  part  still  remains 
without  the  body — it  is  not  drawn  down  into 
it,  but  it  swims  above,  and  touches  the  ex- 

1  Complete  Works,  VI.,  287. 

2  p.  320,  note, 
s  p.  322. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  149 

tremest  part  of  the  man's  head;  it  is  like  a 
cord  to  hold  up  and  direct  the  subsiding  part 
of  the  soul,  as  long  as  it  proves  obedient  and 
is  not  overcome  by  the  appetites  of  the  flesh. 
That  part  that  is  plunged  into  the  body  is 
called  the  soul,  but  the  uncorrupted  part  is 
called  the  mind,  and  the  vulgar  think  it  is 
within  them  as  likewise  they  imagine  the 
image  reflected  from  a  glass  to  be  in  that. 
But  the  more  intelligent,  who  know  it  to  be 
without,  call  it  a  Daemon."  1 

It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  Emerson 
does  not  follow  Plutarch's  distinction  be 
tween  the  daemon  in  the  good  and  in  the 
evil  man.  In  Plutarch  the  daemon  re 
mains  above  the  good  man;  in  Emerson  the 
daemon  in  the  good  man  is  mixed  throughout 
his  substance  and  in  the  bad  man  rests  upon 
his  head.  This  difference  may  be  due  to  an 
inaccurate  interpretation  of  Plutarch;  or,  it 
may  be,  that  in  his  account  Emerson  has 
blended  the  notion  which  Proclus  gives  of  the 
daemon  of  Socrates,  who  "according  to  the 
energy  of  his  daemon,  received  the  light  pro 
ceeding  from  thence,  neither  in  his  dianoetic 
part  alone,  nor  in  his  doxastic  powers,  but  also 
in  his  spirit,  the  illumination  of  the  daemon 

1  Morals,  II.,  410. 


i,5o    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

suddenly  diffusing  itself  through  the  whole 
of  his  life,  and  now  moving  sense  itself."  1 

The  final  portion  of  Emerson's  statement 
refers  to  a  passage  in  Plutarch's  dialogue 
which  Emerson  himself  extracts  in  his  essay 
on  Plutarch.  "Early  this  morning,  asking 
Epaminondas  about  the  manner  of  Lysis's 
burial,  I  found  that  Lysis  had  taught  him  as 
far  as  the  incommunicable  mysteries  of  our 
sect;  and  that  the  same  Daemon  that  waited  on 
Lysis,  presided  over  him,  if  I  can  guess  at  the 
pilot  from  the  sailing  of  the  ship."  2 

These  beliefs  concerning  the  daemon  Emer 
son  works  into  his  poem,  Dcemonic  Lovt: 

"Close,  close  to  men, 
Like  undulating  layer  of  air, 
High  above  their  heads, 
The  potent  plain  of  Daemons  spreads. 
Stands  to  each  human  soul  its  own, 
For  watch  and  ward  and  furtherance, 
In  the  snares  of  Nature's  dance; 
And  the  lustre  and  the  grace 
To  fascinate  each  youthful  heart, 
Beaming  from  its  counterpart, 
Translucent  through  the  mortal  covers, 
Is  the  Daemon's  form  and  face. 

1  Quoted  in  The   Works  of  Plato,  translated  by  Thomas 
Taylor,  I.,  22-23. 

2  Morals,  II.,  399. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  151 

To  and  fro  the  Genius  hies — 

A  gleam  which  plays  and  hovers 

Over  the  maiden's  head, 

And  dips  sometimes  as  low  as  to  her  eyes."  1 

In  this  passage  there  is  a  recognition  of  the 
existence  of  a  guardian  spirit  over  each  hu 
man  soul  and  of  the  manner  of  its  appearance 
as  Plutarch  had  given  it  in  his  picturesque  ex 
planation  of  the  relation  between  the  daemon 
and  its  ward,  the  soul.  In  developing  the 
idea  of  a  multitude  of  daemons  above  us  Emer 
son  was  working  in  accordance  with  a  note  on 
the  benevolent  daemons  given  by  Taylor  in  his 
Plato:  "They  stand,"  he  writes  of  the 
daemons,  "as  it  were  over  our  heads,  discourse 
with  each  other,  and  in  the  mean  time  specu 
late  our  affairs,  disapprove  our  evil  deeds,  and 
commend  such  as  are  good."  2 

The  conception  of  daemonic  love  set  forth 
in  Emerson  is  two  fold.  Daemonic  love  is 
first  presented  as  a  love  of  beauty  in  its  noble 
purity.  This  beauty  snaps  all  the  ties  the  soul 
has  recognized  and  leads  the  soul  to  follow  in 
its  quest.  The  daemons  lend  this  alluring 
beauty  unto  men.  But  there  is  another  race 
of  daemons  who  skirt  man's  path  with  strength 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  no. 

2  III.,  343,  note  I. 


152    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

and  terror.1  That  is,  there  are  evil  daemons 
as  well  as  good  and  an  evil  daemonic  love  along 
with  a  noble  kind. 

The  evil  kind  of  daemonic  love  is  character 
istic  of  those  geniuses  who  exult  in  their  own 
intellectual  prowess  and  insult  the  multitude; 
it  is  a  love  springing  out  of  the  pride  of  intel 
lect.  Thus  the  inspiring  daemons  of  this  evil 
love  are  described: 

"The  Daemons  are  self-seeking 
Their  fierce  and  limitary  will 
Draws  men  to  their  likeness  still."  2 

This  idea  is  in  keeping  with  what  Synesius 
writes  of  evil  daemons :  "These  daemons,  who 
are  the  progeny  of  matter  wish  to  make  souls 
their  own,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  at 
tack  them  is  as  follows :  It  is  not  possible  in 
the  earth  that  there  should  be  someone  who 
has  not  a  portion  of  the  irrational  soul  .  .  . 
Evil  daemons  through  this,  as  through  that 
which  is  allied  to  them,  invade  and  betray  the 
animal.  .  .  ,  Thus  daemons  inflame  de 
sire,  thus  they  inflame  anger,  and  all  such  evils 
as  are  the  sisters  of  these;  associating  with 
souls  through  the  parts  that  are  adapted  to 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  HI. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  153 

themselves,  which  naturally  perceive  the  pres 
ence  of  the  daemons,  and  are  excited  and  cor 
roborated  by  them,  rising  against  intellect, 
till  they  either  vanquish  the  whole  soul,  or  de 
spair  of  its  caption."  1 

Of  the  fate  of  these  destructive  daemons 
Emerson  writes : 

"Therefore  comes  an  hour  from  Jove 
Which  his  ruthless  will  defies, 
And  the  dogs  of  Fate  unties."  2 

This  means  the  destruction  of  the  daemon  and 
his  work. 

The  suggestion  probably  came  from  Cud- 
worth,  who  speaks  of  "those  Empedoclean 
demons  lapsed  from  heaven,  and  pursued  with 
divine  vengeance,"  3  which  Plutarch  had  re 
ferred  to.4  These  daemons  had  been  driven 
out  of  heaven  by  the  offended  gods  and  forced 
to  wander  about  in  restless  torment.  The 
parallel,  at  any  rate,  is  quite  in  keeping  with 
Emerson's  way  of  using  the  fragments  of 
mythology  he  found  in  Cudworth. 

In  his  treatment  of  celestial  love  also  the 
tenets  of  Platonism  are  boldly  expressed.  In 

1  On  Providence,  in  Select  Works  of  Plotinus,  535. 

2  Complete  Works,  IX.,  113. 

3  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  I.,  47. 

4  Plutarch,  Morals,  V.,  420-421. 


154    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

keeping  with  the  scheme  of  an  ascending  scale 
of  love  which  Platonism  had  developed, 
Emerson  places  celestial  love  at  the  summit. 

"Higher  far  into  the  pure  realm, 
Over  sun  and  star, 
Over  the  flickering  Daemon  film, 
Thou  must  mount  for  love; 
Into  vision  where  all  form 
Into  one  only  form  dissolves; 
In  a  region  where  the  wheel 
On  which  all  beings  ride 
Visibly  revolves; 

Where  the  starred,  eternal  worm 
Girds  the  world  with  bound  and  term; 
Where  unlike  things  are  like; 
Where  good  and  ill, 
And  joy  and  moan, 
Melt  into  one. 

"There  Past,  Present,  Future,  shoot 
Triple  blossoms  from  one  root; 
Substances  at  base  divided, 
In  their  summits  are  united ; 
There  the  holy  essence  rolls, 
One  through  separated  souls; 
And  the  sunny  JEon  sleeps 
Folding  Nature  in  its  deeps, 
And  every  fair  and  every  good, 
Known  in  part,  or  known  impure, 
To  men  below, 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  155 

In  their  archetypes  endure, 

The  race  of  gods, 

Or  those  we  erring  own, 

Are  shadows  flitting  up  and  down 

In  the  still  abodes. 

The  circles  of  that  sea  are  laws 

Which  publish  and  which  hide  the  cause."  1 

At  the  basis  of  this  conception  lies  the  idea 
of  the  absolute  unity  of  things.  The  love  of 
this  is  a  celestial  love.  "For,  since  the  soul  is 
different  from  God,"  says  Plotinus  in  one  of 
his  accounts  of  the  union  of  the  soul  with  the 
One — the  god  he  speaks  of,  "but  is  derived 
from  him,  she  necessarily  loves  him,  and  when 
she  is  there  she  has  a  celestial  love;  but  the 
love  which  she  here  possesses  is  common  and 
vulgar.  For  in  the  intelligible  world  the 
celestial  Venus  reigns,  but  here  the  popular 
Venus,  who  is  as  it  were  meretricious."  2 

Thus  in  explaining  the  nature  of  this  love 
Emerson  accepts  the  Plotinian  or  Neo-Pla- 
tonic  scheme  rather  than  the  Platonic,  which 
ended  in  a  vision  of  absolute  beauty  rather  than 
of  an  absolute  One.  In  Emerson  love  ends  in 
a  contemplation  of  the  absolute  oneness  of  all 
form,  conditions,  substances,  and  souls.  Of 

1  Complete   Works,  IX.,   115-116. 

2  Select  Works,  497. 


156    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

this  principle  Plotinus  writes:  "But  that  is 
formless,  and  is  even  without  intelligible 
form.  For  the  nature  of  the  one  being  gen 
erative  of  all  things,  is  not  any  one  of  them. 
Neither  therefore,  is  it  a  certain  thing,  nor  a 
quality,  nor  a  quantity,  nor  intellect,  nor  soul, 
nor  that  which  is  moved,  nor  again  that  which 
stands  still.  Nor  is  it  in  place,  or  in  time; 
but  is  by  itself  uniform,  or  rather  without 
form,  being  prior  to  all  form,  to  motion  and 
to  permanency."  * 

The  couplet  explaining  how  Past,  Present, 
and  Future  shoot  from  one  root  is  a  reminis 
cence  of  the  conception  of  the  intelligible 
world  which  possesses  all  things  in  eternity. 
For  intellect,  which  there  reigns,  as  Plotinus 
says,  "alone  is,  and  is  always,  but  is  never  fu 
ture;  for  when  the  future  arrives,  it  then  also 
is;  nor  is  it  the  past"  2 

One  with  Plotinus  is  the  idea  of  the  exist 
ence  of  all  things  in  their  archetypes  in  the 
world  of  pure  intellect.  He  holds  that  all  be 
ings  exist  primarily  in  intellect.  "Hence," 
he  adds,  "it  is  necessary  that  these  things 
should  be  prior  to  the  world,  not  as  impres 
sions  from  other  things,  but  as  archetypes,  and 

1  Select  Works,  478. 

2  Ibid.,  263. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  157 

primary  natures,  and  the  essence  of  the  intel 
lect."  1  Inasmuch  as  in  intellect  all  things 
are  together  without  respect  to  time  and  place, 
they  are  conceived  by  Plotinus  to  be  in  eter 
nity2 — an  idea  which  Emerson  alludes  to  in 
his  lines  on  JEon.  lEon  is  the  English  name 
for  a«oi/  (eternity). 

Into  Emerson's  account  the  imagery  of 
Plato's  Phcedrus  also  enters.  In  his  narrative 
of  the  life  of  souls  in  the  intelligible  world 
Plato  tells  how  all  that  are  able  revolve  about 
pure  ideas  which  they  behold  and  whose  life 
they  drink  in.  "For  those  that  are  called  im 
mortal,"  he  writes,  "when  they  reach  the  sum 
mit,  proceeding  outside,  stand  on  the  back  of 
heaven,  and  while  they  are  stationed  here,  its 
revolution  carries  them  round,  and  they  be 
hold  the  external  regions  of  heaven."  3  Al 
luding  to  this  Emerson  thus  directs  the 
lover  to 

"a  region  where  the  wheel 
On  which  all  beings  ride 
Visibly  revolves."  4 

The  nature  of  poetry  permitted  Emerson  to 

1 /&»</.,  293. 

2  Ibid.,  186. 

3Bohn  translation,  I.,  323. 

*  Complete  Works,  IX.,  115. 


158     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

give  a  highly  concentrated  account  of  love  as 
conceived  by  Plato  and  the  Platonists ;  it  also 
permitted  him  to  be  impersonal.  But  in  the 
more  familiar  form  of  the  essay  he  was  com 
pelled  to  relate  this  theory  to  the  ways  of 
actual  experience.  Thus  he  came  to  write  in 
his  essay  on  Friendship:  "My  friends  have 
come  to  me  unsought.  The  great  God  gave 
them  to  me.  By  oldest  right,  by  the  divine 
affinity  of  virtue  with  itself,  I  find  them,  or 
rather  not  I,  but  the  deity  in  me  and  in  them 
derides  and  cancels  the  thick  walls  of  individ 
ual  character,  relation,  age,  sex,  circumstance, 
at  which  he  usually  connives,  and  now  makes 
many  one."  1 

This  account  lacks  the  wealth  of  metaphysi 
cal  statement  that  characterizes  his  poem, 
Celestial  Love,  but  it  shows  how  Emerson  ap 
plied  his  metaphysics  to  his  own  life.  Be 
neath  the  passage  is  the  conception  of  the  One 
which  here  unites  his  friends  and  himself  into 
one  mystic  communion. 

And  yet  he  is  true  to  the  teaching  of  the 
Platonists  in  making  that  mystic  experience  of 
the  One  a  solitary  communion  of  the  soul  with 
the  Absolute.  This  mystic  union  of  many 
friends  is  not  satisfactory.  Hence  he  passes 

i  Ibid.,  II.,  194. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  159 

on  to  observe  that  the  soul  demands  an  abso 
lutely  solitary  union  with  itself.  "I  cannot 
deny  it,  O  friend,"  he  continues,  "that  the 
vast  shadow  of  the  Phenomenal  includes  thee 
also  in  its  pied  and  painted  immensity, — thee 
also,  compared  with  whom  all  else  is  shadow. 
Thou  are  not  Being,  as  Truth  is,  as  Justice  is 
— thou  are  not  my  soul,  but  a  picture  and 
effigy  of  that.  Thou  hast  come  to  me  lately, 
and  already  thou  art  seizing  thy  hat  and  cloak. 
Is  it  not  that  the  soul  puts  forth  friends  as  the 
trees  puts  forth  leaves,  and  presently,  by  the 
germination  of  new  buds,  extrudes  the  old 
leaf?  The  law  of  nature  is  alternation  for 
evermore.  Each  electrical  state  superinduces 
the  opposite.  The  soul  environs  itself  with 
friends  that  it  may  enter  into  a  grander  self- 
acquaintance  or  solitude;  and  it  goes  alone  for 
a  season  that  it  may  exalt  its  conversation  or 
society.  This  method  betrays  itself  along  the 
whole  history  of  our  personal  relations."  1 

In  such  an  account  the  necessity  of  soli 
tary  self-communion  is  emphatic.  It  recalls 
the  ideal  of  friendship  which  lamblichus 
states  characterized  the  Pythagoreans;  "for 
they  perpetually  exhorted  each  other,  not  to 
divulse  the  God  within  them.  Hence  all  the 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  197-198. 


160    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

endeavour  of  their  friendship,  both  in  deeds 
and  words,  was  directed  to  a  certain  divine 
mixture,  to  a  union  with  divinity,  and  to  a 
communion  with  intellect  and  a  divine  soul."  1 
And  this  self-communion  is  for  the  purpose 
of  catching  a  vision  of  eternal  things  in  some 
great  moment.  "In  the  great  days,  presenti 
ments  hover  before  me  in  the  firmament.  I 
ought,  then,  to  dedicate  myself  to  them.  I  go 
in  that  I  may  seize  them,  I  go  out  that  I  may 
seize  them.  I  fear  only  that  I  may  lose  them 
receding  into  the  sky  in  which  now  they  are 
only  a  patch  of  brighter  light.  Then,  though 
I  prize  my  friends,  I  cannot  afford  to  talk 
with  them  and  study  their  visions,  lest  I  lose 
my  own.  It  would  indeed  give  me  a  certain 
household  joy  to  quit  this  lofty  seeking,  this 
spiritual  astronomy  or  search  for  stars,  and 
come  down  to  warm  sympathies  with  you ;  but 
then  I  know  well  I  shall  mourn  always  the 
vanishing  of  my  mighty  gods.  It  is  true,  next 
week  I  shall  have  languid  moods,  when  I  can 
well  afford  to  occupy  myself  with  foreign  ob 
jects;  then  I  shall  regret  the  lost  literature  of 
your  mind,  and  wish  you  were  by  my  side 
again.  But  if  you  come,  perhaps  you  will  fill 
my  mind  only  with  new  visions;  not  with 

1  Life  of  Pythagoras,  170. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  161 

yourself,  but  with  your  lustres,  and  I  shall  not 
be  able  any  more  to  converse  with  you.  So  I 
will  owe  to  my  friends  this  evanescent  inter 
course.  I  will  receive  from  them  not  what 
they  have,  but  what  they  are.  They  shall 
give  me  that  which  properly  they  cannot  give, 
but  which  emanates  from  them.  But  they 
shall  not  hold  me  by  any  relations  less  sub 
tile  and  pure.  We  will  meet  as  though  we 
met  not,  and  part  as  though  we  parted  not."  1 
Acquiescence  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  moment 
of  mystic  vision  thus  takes  precedence  in  Em 
erson  over  any  desire  to  know  the  meaning  of 
simple,  human  fellowship. 

Thus  far  Emerson  has  explained  friendship 
from  his  personal  point  of  view  and  shown 
the  relations  in  which  his  friends  stand  to 
him;  but  in  his  poem,  Ettenne  de  la  Boece,  he 
states  his  duty  to  his  friend.  It  is  not  to  fol 
low  him,  but  to  direct  his  mind  to  the  worship 
of  that  inward  Divine  Presence  to  which  his 
own  life  is  dedicated: 

"If  I  could, 

In  severe  or  cordial  mood, 

Lead  you  rightly  to  my  altar, 

Where  the  wisest  Muses  falter, 

And  worship  that  world-warming  spark 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  215-216. 


1 62     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Which  dazzles  me  In  midnight  dark, 
Equalizing  small  and  large, 
While  the  soul  it  doth  surcharge, 
Till  the  poor  is  wealthy  grown, 
And  the  hermit  never  alone — 
The  traveller  and  the  road  seem  one 
With  the  errand  to  be  done — 
That  were  a  man's  and  lover's  part, 
That  were  Freedom's  whitest  chart."  1 

In  this  passage  the  characterization  of  the 
"world-warming  spark"  identifies  it  with 
the  Over-Soul.  Without  that  identification 
the  poem  becomes  unintelligible,  especially  the 
couplet — 

"The  traveller  and  the  road  seem  one 
With  the  errand  to  be  done." 

But  interpreted  in  keeping  with  the  doctrin< 
of  the  Over-Soul  the  poem  shows  that  in  such 
a  passage  Emerson  is  expressing  the  Platon- 
ist's  belief  that  in  the  union  of  soul  with  the 
One  the  knower  and  the  thing  known  are  one. 
As  Plotinus  expresses  the  notion,  using  the  fig 
ure  of  light,  he  says  of  the  mystic  devotee  that 
"he  will  be  ignorant  of  the  manner  in  which 
he  sees  it  [the  One]  ;  but  the  vision  filling  the 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  82. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY          163 

eyes  with  light,  will  prevent  him  from  see 
ing  anything  else,  since  the  light  itself  will 
be  the  object  of  his  vision."  l  It  is  an  experi 
ence  in  which  the  traveler,  or  the  soul  of  the 
devotee,  the  errand,  or  the  vision  of  the  One, 
and  the  road,  or  the  light  from  the  One,  are 
one. 

In  finding  the  foundation  of  love  and 
friendship  in  a  mystical  experience  of  such 
absorbing  interest,  Emerson  has  forsaken 
Plato,  who  does  not  ignore  the  personal, 
human  elements  in  love.  Many  are  the 
touches  that  let  us  into  the  human  side  of  the 
Dialogues  and  show  the  tenderness  of  Socrates 
in  his  dealings  with  the  favorite  youths  that 
crowded  about  to  hear  him  question.  The 
youthful  Charmides  and  Lysis  are  types  of 
such  Athenian  lads  in  whose  personal  graces 
and  character  the  ugly-featured  Socrates  took 
warm  delight.  Nor,  indeed,  is  adherence  to 
the  purely  speculative  side  of  the  Dialogues 
destructive  of  human  affection.  Such  specu 
lation  is  based  on  beauty  and  beauty,  however 
refined,  in  Plato  is  still  a  beauty  that  the  soul 
sees  in  the  loved  one.  The  English  poet, 
Spenser,  has  proved  in  his  Calidore  and  Pas- 
torella  episode  in  The  Faerie  Queene  how 

1  On  Suicide,  101-102. 


164    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

sympathetic  such  a  love  as  Plato  taught  can 
be.  But  by  forsaking  this  beauty  for  a  more 
metaphysical  conception  of  unity  Emerson 
failed  to  realize  the  best  that  Plato  can  teach. 

And  yet  Emerson  gives  a  statement  of  the 
theory  of  love  which  is  based  upon  a  passion 
for  beauty.  In  his  essay,  Love,  he  explains 
"that  high  philosophy  of  Beauty  which  the 
ancient  writers  delighted  in ;  for  they  said  that 
the  soul  of  man,  embodied  here  on  earth,  went 
roaming  up  and  down  in  quest  of  that  other 
world  of  its  own  out  of  which  it  came  into 
this,  but  was  soon  stupefied  by  the  light  of 
the  natural  sun,  and  unable  to  see  any  other 
objects  than  those  of  this  world,  which  are 
but  shadows  of  real  things.  Therefore,  the 
Deity  sends  the  glory  of  youth  before  the 
soul,  that  it  may  avail  itself  of  beautiful 
bodies  as  aids  to  its  recollection  of  the  celestial 
good  and  fair;  and  the  man  beholding  such 
a  person  in  the  female  sex  runs  to  her  and 
finds  the  highest  joy  in  contemplating  the 
form,  movement  and  intelligence  of  this  per 
son,  because  it  suggests  to  him  the  presence 
of  that  which  indeed  is  within  the  beauty,  and 
the  cause  of  the  beauty."  l 

This  is  an  abstract  of  what  Plutarch  had 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  181. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY          165 

said  on  love.  In  his  dialogue,  Of  Love,  he  has 
a  discussion  arising  out  of  the  resemblance 
between  the  sun  and  the  god  of  love.  The 
passage  runs:  "Nevertheless,  we  must  not 
therefore  say  they  are  all  one.  For  neither 
are  the  soul  and  body  the  same,  but  distinct; 
as  the  sun  is  visible,  but  love  is  perceptible 
only  by  sense.  And  if  it  might  not  be  thought 
too  harsh  a  saying,  a  man  might  affirm  that 
the  sun  and  love  act  contrary  to  one  another. 
For  the  sun  diverts  the  understanding  from 
things  intelligible  to  sensible  objects,  alluring 
and  fascinating  the  sight  with  the  grace  and 
splendor  of  his  rays,  and  persuading  us  to 
search  for  other  things,  and  even  for  truth 
itself,  within  and  about  itself,  and  nowhere 
else.  And  we  appear  to  be  passionately  in 
love  with  the  sun,  because,  as  Euripides  says, 

He  always  on  the  earth  displays 
The  glory  of  his  burning  rays, 

for  want  of  our  knowledge  of  another  life, 
or  rather,  through  our  forgetfulness  of  those 
things  which  love  calls  to  our  remembrance. 
For  as,  when  we  are  newly  awaked  and  come 
into  a  bright  and  dazzling  light,  we  forget 
whatever  appeared  to  the  soul  in  our  dreams; 
so  the  sun  seems  to  stupefy  our  recollection 


i66    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

and  impoison  our  understanding,  when  we 
change  from  the  former  life  and  enter  this 
world,  so  that  in  our  pleasure  and  admiration 
we  forget  all  other  considerations  besides  that 
of  the  present  life.  Though  there  indeed  are 
the  real  substances  proper  for  the  contempla 
tion  of  the  soul;  here,  as  in  sleep,  it  embraces 
only  dreams,  and  gazes  in  admiration  and 
astonishment  at  what  appears  to  it  most  beau 
tiful  and  divine,  while 

Fallacious  charming  dreams  about  it  fly — 

it  being  persuaded  that  here  everything  is 
goodly  and  highly  to  be  prized,  unless  it  hap 
pens  upon  some  divine  and  chaste  love  to  be 
its  physician  and  preserver.  This  love,  enter 
ing  through  the  body,  becomes  a  guide  to  lead 
the  soul  from  the  world  below  to  truth  and 
the  fields  of  truth,  where  full,  pure,  deceitless 
beauty  dwells ;  and  leading  forth  and  guiding 
upward  those  that  now  after  a  long  time  are 
eager  to  embrace  and  live  with  such  beauty, 
it  stands  by  them,  like  a  friendly  mystagogue 
at  the  sacred  ceremonies  of  initiation.  But 
no  sooner  is  the  soul  sent  from  thence  again, 
but  love  is  no  longer  able  to  make  her  ap 
proaches  of  herself,  but  by  the  body.  And, 
therefore,  as  geometricians,  when  children  are 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  167 

not  able  of  themselves  to  apprehend  the  in 
telligible  idea  of  incorporeal  and  impassible 
substance,  form  and  set  before  their  eyes  the 
tangible  and  visible  imitation  of  spheres, 
cubes,  and  dodecahedrons;  in  like  manner 
celestial  love,  having  framed  lovely  mirrors 
to  represent  lovely  objects — things  mortal  and 
passible  to  represent  things  divine,  and  sensi 
ble  objects  to  represent  those  perceptible  only 
to  the  eye  of  reason — shows  them  to  us  glitter 
ing  in  the  forms,  colors,  and  shape  of  youth 
in  its  prime,  and  first  insensibly  moves  the 
memory  inflamed  by  the  sight  of  these  ob 
jects."  1 

Emerson  then  continues  with  his  account: 
"If,  however,  from  too  much  conversing  with 
material  objects,  the  soul  was  gross,  and  mis 
placed  its  satisfaction  in  the  body,  it  reaped 
nothing  but  sorrow;  body  being  unable  to  ful 
fil  the  promise  which  beauty  holds  out;  but 
if,  accepting  the  hint  of  these  visions  and  sug 
gestions  which  beauty  makes  to  his  mind,  the 
soul  passes  through  the  body  and  falls  to 
admire  strokes  of  character,  and  the  lovers 
contemplate  one  another  in  their  discourses 
and  their  actions,  then  they  pass  to  the  true 
palace  of  beauty,  more  and  more  inflame  their 

1  Morals,  IV.,  294-295. 


i68     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

love  of  it,  and  by  this  love  extinguishing  the 
base  affection,  as  the  sun  puts  out  fire  by 
shining  on  the  hearth,  they  become  pure  and 
hallowed."  1 

The  basis  of  this  is  found  in  the  continua 
tion  of  Plutarch's  account:  "Whence  it 
comes  to  pass  that  some,  through  the  stupidity 
of  their  friends  and  acquaintances,  endeavor 
ing  by  force  and  against  reason  to  extinguish 
that  flame,  have  enjoyed  nothing  of  true  bene 
fit  thereby,  but  only  either  disquieted  them 
selves  with  smoke  and  trouble,  or  else 
rushing  headlong  into  obscure  and  irregular 
pleasures,  obstinately  cast  themselves  away. 
But  as  many  as  by  sober  and  modest  ratiocina 
tion  have  sincerely  extinguished  the  raging 
heat  of  the  fire,  and  left  behind  only  warm  and 
glowing  heat  in  the  soul — which  causes  no  vio 
lent  earthquake,  as  it  was  once  called,  rous 
ing  the  seed  and  causing  a  gliding  of  atoms 
compressed  by  smoothness  and  titillation, 
but  a  wonderful  and  engendering  diffusion, 
as  in  a  blossoming  and  well-nourished  plant, 
which  opens  the  pores  of  obedience  and  affec 
tion — these,  I  say,  in  a  short  time  passing  by 
the  bodies  of  those  whom  they  love,  penetrate 
more  inwardly  and  fall  to  admire  their  man- 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  181-182. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  169 

ners  and  dispositions;  and  calling  off  their 
eyes  from  the  body,  they  converse  together 
and  contemplate  one  another  in  their  dis 
courses  and  in  their  actions,  provided  there 
be  but  the  least  scrip  or  appearance  of  beauty 
in  the  understanding.  If  not,  they  let  them 
go,  and  turn  their  affections  upon  others,  like 
bees  that  will  not  fasten  upon  many  plants  and 
flowers,  because  they  cannot  gather  honey 
from  them.  But  where  they  find  any  foot 
step,  any  emanation,  any  resemblance  of  a 
divinity,  ravished  with  delight  and  admira 
tion  as  they  recall  it  to  memory,  they  attract 
it  to  themselves,  and  are  revived  by  striving 
to  attain  to  what  is  truly  amiable,  happy  and 
beloved  by  all  mankind. 

".  .  .  This  same  subtle  invention  of 
love-sophistry  in  generous  and  noble  souls 
causes  a  repercussion  of  the  memory  from  ob 
jects  that  here  appear  and  are  called  beauti 
ful,  to  the  beauty  really  divine,  truly  amiable 
and  happy,  and  by  all  admired.  But  most 
people  pursuing  and  taking  hold  of  the  fan 
cied  image  of  this  beauty  in  boys  and  women, 
as  it  were  seen  in  a  mirror,  reap  nothing  more 
assured  and  certain  than  a  little  pleasure 
mixed  with  pain.  .  .  .  But  a  generous 
and  modest  lover  observes  another  method; 


170    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

for  his  contemplations  reflect  only  on  that 
beauty  which  is  divine  and  perceptible  by 
the  understanding;  but  lighting  upon  the 
beauty  of  a  visible  body,  and  making  use  of 
it  as  a  kind  of  organ  of  the  memory,  he  em 
braces  and  loves,  and  by  conversation  aug 
menting  his  joy  and  satisfaction  still  more 
and  more  inflames  his  understanding.  But 
neither  do  these  lovers  conversing  with  bodies 
rest  satisfied  in  this  world  with  a  desire 
and  admiration  of  this  same  light.  .  .  . 
Whereas  a  lover  truly  chaste  and  amorous, 
being  got  to  the  true  mansion  of  beauty,  and 
there  conversing  with  it  as  much  as  it  is  law 
ful  for  him  to  do,  mounted  upon  wings  of 
chaste  desire,  becomes  pure  and  hallowed; 
and  being  initiated  into  sacred  orders,  con 
tinues  dancing  and  sporting  about  this  Deity, 
till  returning  again  to  the  meadows  of  the 
Moon  and  Venus,  and  there  laid  asleep,  he 
becomes  ready  for  a  new  nativity."  1 

Emerson  then  concludes:  "By  conversa 
tion  with  that  which  is  in  itself  excellent, 
magnanimous,  lowly  and  just,  the  lover  comes 
to  a  warmer  love  of  these  nobilities,  and  a 
quicker  apprehension  of  them.  Then  he 
passes  from  loving  them  in  one  to  loving 

1  Morals,  IV.,  295-296,  297-298. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  171 

them  in  all,  and  so  is  the  one  beautiful  soul 
the  only  door  through  which  he  enters  to  the 
society  of  all  true  and  pure  souls.  In  the 
particular  society  of  his  mate  he  attains  a 
clearer  sight  of  any  spot,  any  taint  which  her 
beauty  has  contracted  from  this  world,  and 
is  able  to  point  it  out,  and  this  with  mutual 
joy  that  they  are  able,  without  offence,  to  in 
dicate  blemishes  and  hindrances  in  each 
other,  and  give  to  each  all  help  and  comfort 
in  curing  the  same.  And  beholding  in  many 
souls  the  traits  of  divine  beauty,  and  separat 
ing  in  each  soul  that  which  is  divine  from 
the  taint  which  it  has  contracted  in  the  world, 
the  lover  ascends  to  the  highest  beauty,  to  the 
love  and  knowledge  of  the  Divinity,  by  steps 
on  this  ladder  of  created  souls."  l 

This  portion  of  his  abstract  is  not  from 
Plutarch.  Plutarch  had  brought  his  discus 
sion  to  a  point  "too  high  for  the  discourse 
which  we  have  proposed  to  ourselves."  Em 
erson  thus  turns  to  Plato.  In  his  Banquet 
Plato  explains:  "Now  to  go,  or  to  be  led 
by  another,  along  the  right  way  of  Love,  is 
this:  beginning  from  those  beauties  of  lower 
rank,  to  proceed  in  a  continual  ascent,  all 
the  way  proposing  this  highest  beauty  as  the 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  182-183. 


172    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

end ;  and  using  the  rest  but  as  so  many  steps 
in  the  ascent;  to  proceed  from  one  to  two, 
from  two  to  all  beauteous  bodies ;  from 
the  beauty  of  bodies  to  that  of  souls ;  from  the 
beauty  of  souls  to  that  of  arts ;  from  the  beauty 
of  arts  to  that  of  discipline,  until  at  length 
from  the  disciplines  he  arrives  at  that  disci 
pline  which  is  the  discipline  of  no  other 
thing  than  of  that  supreme  beauty;  and  thus 
finally  attains  to  know  what  is  the  beautiful 
itself."  * 

"But  this  dream  of  love,"  observes  Emer 
son,  "though  beautiful,  is  only  one  scene  in 
our  play."  2  It  is  not  a  theory  that  he  applied 
to  his  own  experience.  It  merely  strength 
ened  his  belief  that  love  as  it  grows  older 
must  grow  more  impersonal.  The  affections 
and  the  personal  relations  must  give  way  to 
this.  "The  soul  may  be  trusted  to  the  end. 
That  which  is  so  beautiful  and  attractive  as 
these  relations,  must  be  succeeded  and  sup 
planted  only  by  what  is  more  beautiful,  and 
so  on  forever." 3 

The  presence  of  the  same  theory  of  the 
beautiful  is  felt  in  Emerson's  essay  on  Beauty. 

1  The  Works  of  Plato,  translated  by  Thomas  Taylor,  III., 

514. 

2  Complete  Works,  II.,  183. 

3  Ibid.,  II,  188. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  173 

"Thus  there  is  a  climbing  scale  of  culture, 
from  the  first  agreeable  sensation  which  a 
sparkling  gem  or  a  scarlet  stain  affords  the 
eye,  up  through  fair  outlines  and  details  of 
the  landscape,  features  of  the  human  face  and 
form,  signs  and  tokens  of  thought  and  char 
acter  in  manners,  up  to  the  ineffable  mysteries 
of  the  intellect.  Wherever  we  begin,  thither 
our  steps  tend:  an  ascent  from  the  joy  of  a 
horse  in  his  trappings,  up  to  the  perception 
of  Newton  that  the  globe  on  which  we  ride  is 
only  a  larger  apple  falling  from  a  larger  tree; 
up  to  the  perception  of  Plato  that  globe  and 
universe  are  rude  and  early  expressions  of  an 
all-dissolving  Unity — the  first  stair  on  the 
scale  to  the  temple  of  the  Mind."  l 

This  is  a  reworking  from  the  Neo-Platonic 
standpoint  of  the  dialectic  of  beauty  as  Plato 
had  stated  it  in  his  Banquet.  Plato  held  to 
a  way  by  which  the  soul  mounts  from  the  con 
templation  of  the  beauty  of  one  object  to  the 
spiritual  vision  of  absolute  beauty.  Plotinus, 
in  his  treatment  of  beauty,  extends  the  path 
until  it  reaches  the  absolute  One  itself.  "Just 
as  those  who  penetrate  into  the  holy  retreats 
of  sacred  mysteries,"  he  explains,  "are  first 
purified,  and  then  divest  themselves  of  their 

1  Complete  Works,  VL,  306. 


174    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

garments,  until  someone,  by  such  a  process, 
having  dismissed  everything  foreign  from  the 
God,  by  himself  alone,  beholds  the  solitary 
principle  of  the  universe,  sincere,  simple,  and 
pure,  from  which  all  things  depend,  and  to 
whose  transcendent  perfections  the  eyes  of  all 
intelligent  natures  are  directed,  as  the  proper 
cause  of  being,  life,  and  intelligence."  1 

Yet  Emerson  shows  more  than  a  formal 
recognition  of  the  doctrine  of  beauty  as  held 
by  the  Platonists.  He  was  a  true  lover  of 
beauty.  His  Ode  to  Beauty  shows  him  not 
unworthy  of  a  place  with  Keats,  Milton  and 
Spenser.  But  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  it 
is  the  aesthetic  theory  of  Neo-Platonic  writers 
rather  than  of  Plato  that  influences  his  work. 
He  felt  without  a  doubt  the  difference  be 
tween  the  speculations  of  Plotinus  and  of 
Proclus  on  beauty  from  those  of  Plato.  Plato 
had  very  little  to  say  of  material  beauty,  but 
Plotinus  developed  an  aesthetic  theory  that  did 
full  justice  to  it,  even  though  his  mysticism 
tended  to  make  him  reject  the  claims  of  things 
of  the  sensuous  world;  Proclus  followed  in 
his  footsteps.  Consequently,  in  these  two 
writers  Emerson  found  a  body  of  theory  ready 

1  An  Essay  on  the  Beautiful,  30-31. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  175 

made  and  he  fashioned  his  own  theories  ac 
cordingly. 

It  was  the  intellectual  quality  of  beauty 
that  held  Emerson's  attention.  "Beauty,"  he 
says,  "is  the  form  under  which  the  intellect 
prefers  to  study  the  world."  1  Thus  in  his 
final  analysis  of  beauty  he  holds  that  "the  new 
virtue  which  constitutes  a  thing  beautiful  is 
a  certain  cosmical  quality,  or  a  power  to  sug 
gest  relation  to  the  whole  world,  and  so  lift 
the  object  out  of  a  pitiful  individuality. 
Every  natural  feature — sea,  sky,  rainbow, 
flowers,  musical  tone — has  in  it  somewhat 
which  is  not  private,  but  universal,  speaks  of 
that  central  benefit  which  is  the  soul  of  nature, 
and  thereby  is  beautiful.  And  in  chosen  men 
and  women  I  find  somewhat  in  form,  speech 
and  manners,  which  is  not  of  their  person  and 
family,  but  of  a  human,  catholic  and  spiritual 
character,  and  we  love  them  as  the  sky.  They 
have  a  largeness  of  suggestion,  their  face  and 
manners  carry  a  certain  grandeur,  like  time 
and  justice."  a 

His  poem,  Each  and  All,  turns  upon  this 
conception : 

1  Complete   Works,  VI.,  287. 

2  Ibid.,  VI.,  303-304. 


176    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

"All  are  needed  by  each  one; 
Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone."  l 


He  works  out  the  sentiment  by  explaining 
how  a  thing  of  beauty  loses  its  charm  when 
taken  from  its  natural  environment  and  in 
stances  the  mute  silence  of  the  bird  when 
brought  home  from  the  woodland,  the  lost 
beauty  of  the  shells  when  removed  from  the 
beach,  and  the  faded  charm  of  the  maiden 
when  she  becomes  the  lover's  wife.  Realiz 
ing  these  disappointments,  he  exclaims, 

"  'I  covet  truth; 

Beauty  is  unripe  childhood's  cheat; 
I  leave  it  behind  with  the  games  of  youth.'  "  2 

But  the  true  insight  came  when  he  looked 
about  him  at  the  beauty  of  the  place. 

"As  I  spoke,  beneath  my  feet 
The  ground-pine  curled  its  pretty  wreath, 
Running  over  the  club  moss  burrs; 
I  inhaled  the  violet's  breath; 
Around  me  stood  the  oaks  and  firs; 
Pine-cones  and  acorns  lay  on  the  ground; 
Over  me  soared  the  eternal  sky, 

1  Ibid.,  IX.,  4. 

2  Complete  Works,  IX.,  5. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY          177 

Full  of  light  and  of  deity; 

Again  I  saw,  again  I  heard, 

The  rolling  river,  the  morning  bird  — 

Beauty  through  my  senses  stole; 

I  yielded  myself  to  the  perfect  whole."  l 

This  conception  of  beauty  is  that  which 
Proclus  teaches.  In  his  Commentaries  on 
the  Timceus  of  Plato  he  develops  the  idea  at 
length.  "What,  then,  someone  may  say,  are 
not  the  sun  and  moon  and  each  of  the  stars 
beautiful?  But  how  is  this  possible?  For 
each  of  these  is  assimilated  to  a  partial  ani 
mal.  To  this  we  reply,  that  each  of  these  is 
beautiful  when  surveyed  in  conjunction  with 
the  whole  and  co-arranged  with  the  whole  ; 
just  as  the  eye  and  the  chin  are  beautiful,  in 
conjunction  with  the  whole  face,  and  while 
in  the  whole;  but  surveyed  by  themselves 
apart  from  the  face,  do  not  exhibit  the  beauty 
which  is  adapted  to  them.  For  in  subsisting 
as  a  part  and  not  as  a  whole,  each  when  essen 
tially  divulsed  from  the  whole,  suffers  a 
diminution  of  its  own  proper  beauty.  The 
perfect,  therefore,  and  the  beautiful  are  pres 
ent  with  these  which  are  parts,  on  account  of 
the  whole."  2 


&,  IX.,  5-6. 
2  I,  356. 


178     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

To  the  same  idea  of  beauty  Emerson  refers 
in  his  definition  of  the  comic.  This  quality 
in  objects  arises  when  the  relation  of  the  ob 
ject  to  the  whole  is  not  observed,  but  the  in 
dividual  is  purposely  held  up  as  a  contrast  to 
the  whole.  "Man  through  his  access  to 
Reason,"  Emerson  maintains,  "is  capable  of 
the  perception  of  a  whole  and  a  part.  Reason 
is  the  whole  and  whatsoever  is  not  this  is  a 
part.  The  whole  of  Nature  is  agreeable  to 
the  whole  of  thought,  or  to  the  Reason;  but 
separate  any  part  of  Nature  and  attempt  to 
look  at  it  as  a  whole  by  itself,  and  the  feeling 
of  the  ridiculous  begins."  1 

By  virtue  of  this  cosmical  quality  of  beauty 
each  object  in  the  universe  becomes  symboli 
cal,  or  representative  of  the  whole.  Such  is 
the  statement  that  satisfies  the  intellect;  but  in 
the  theory  there  is  an  imaginative  element 
which  Emerson  develops  to  the  full.  The 
transformation  of  the  individual  into  a  thing 
of  universal  relationship  is  a  stroke  of  the 
imagination.  "There  are  no  days  in  life," 
he  confesses,  "so  memorable  as  those  which 
vibrated  to  some  stroke  of  the  imagination."  2 
Beauty  thus  takes  on  a  fugitive  nature.  "This 

1  Complete  Works,  VIII.,  158. 
«.,  VI.,  304. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  179 

is  the  reason,"  he  explains,  "why  beauty  is 
still  escaping  out  of  all  analysis.  It  is  not  yet 
possessed,  it  cannot  be  handled.  Proclus 
says,  'It  swims  on  the  light  of  forms.'  It  is 
properly  not  in  the  form,  but  in  the  mind.  It 
instantly  deserts  possession,  and  flies  to  an  ob 
ject  in  the  horizon."  1 

Here  the  sentiment  is  openly  ascribed  to 
Proclus,  whose  account  of  beauty  in  his  On 
the  Theology  of  Plato  was  a  marked  passage 
in  Emerson's  own  copy.  There  Proclus  had 
written:  "And  because  it  [beauty]  bounds 
this  triad,  and  covers  as  with  a  veil  the  ineffa 
ble  union  of  the  gods,  swims  as  it  were  on 
the  light  of  forms,  causes  intelligible  light  to 
shine  forth  and  announces  the  occult  nature 
of  goodness,  it  is  denominated  splendid,  lucid 
and  manifest."  2 

With  an  eye  keen  for  the  sentence  that 
states  a  truth  chiming  in  with  his  own  thought 
Emerson  seizes  the  statement  of  Proclus  and 
makes  it  the  text  of  his  Ode  to  Beauty,  which 
may  be  regarded  as  the  companion  piece  of 
Each  and  AIL  In  the  Ode  Emerson  sings  of 
the  enthralling  attraction  of  a  beauty  which 
always  escapes  his  grasp,  eternal  fugitive  that 

1  Ibid.,  VI.,  303. 

2  I.,  78. 


180     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

it  is.  Though  he  knows  not  how  it  came 
about,  he  was  a  thrall  of  beauty  from  the  first 
time  he  ever  saw  her. 

"Lavish,  lavish  promiser, 
Nigh  persuading  gods  to  err! 
Guest  of  million  painted  forms, 
Which  in  turns  thy  glory  warms ! 
The  frailest  leaf,  the  mossy  bark, 
The  acorn's  cup,  the  rain  drop's  arc, 
The  swinging  spider's  silver  line, 
The  ruby  of  the  drop  of  wine, 
The  shining  pebble  of  the  pond, 
Thou  inscribest  with  a  bond, 
In  thy  momentary  play, 
Would  bankrupt  nature  to  repay. 

•  •  •  • 

"Thee  gliding  through  the  sea  of  form, 
Like  the  lightning  through  the  storm, 
Somewhat  not  to  be  possessed, 
Somewhat  not  to  be  caressed, 
No  feet  so  fleet  could  ever  find, 
No  perfect  form  could  ever  bind. 
Thou  eternal  fugitive, 
Hovering  over  all  that  live, 
Quick  and  skilful  to  inspire 
Sweet,  extravagant  desire, 
Starry  space  and  lily-bell 
Filling  with  thy  roseate  smell, 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  181 

Will  not  give  the  lips  to  taste 
Of  the  nectar  which  thou  hast."  l 

Emerson  also  recognizes  the  spiritual  side 
of  beauty  which  he  had  found  stated  in  the 
Platonists.  "The  presence  of  a  higher, 
namely,  of  the  spiritual  element  is  essential 
to  its  perfection.  The  high  and  divine 
beauty  which  can  be  loved  without  effemi 
nacy,  is  that  which  is  found  in  combination 
with  the  human  will.  Beauty  is  the  mark 
God  sets  upon  Virtue.  Every  natural  action 
is  graceful.  Every  heroic  act  is  also  decent, 
and  causes  the  place  and  the  bystanders  to 
shine."  2 

Plutarch,  in  his  dialogue,  Of  Love,  has 
made  one  of  his  characters  observe,  "But  some 
say  that  beauty  is  the  flower  of  virtue." 3 
Emerson  had  noted  the  sentiment,  for  he  re 
peats  it  in  his  essay,  Love,  when  he  says, 
"The  ancients  called  beauty  the  flowering  of 
virtue." 4 

But  Emerson  develops  the  idea  in  a  charac 
teristic  way.  Not  only  is  beauty  the  outward 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  87-90. 

2  Ibid.,  I.,  19-20. 

8  Morals,  IV.,  300. 

4  Complete  Works,  II.,  179. 


182     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

index  in  man  of  spiritual  excellence,  as  Pla- 
tonism  taught,  but  nature  herself  envelops  the 
beautiful  act  with  the  beauty  of  her  own  en 
vironment.  Thus  Emerson  asks,  "When  a 
noble  act  is  done — perchance  in  a  scene  of 
great  natural  beauty;  when  Leonidas  and  his 
three  hundred  martyrs  consume  one  day  in 
dying,  and  the  sun  and  moon  come  each  and 
look  at  them  once  in  the  steep  defile  of 
Thermopylae;  when  Arnold  Winkelried,  in 
the  high  Alps,  under  the  shadow  of  the  ava 
lanche,  gathers  in  his  side  a  sheaf  of  Austrian 
spears  to  break  the  line  for  his  comrades — 
are  not  these  heroes  entitled  to  add  the 
beauty  of  the  scene  to  the  beauty  of  the  deed? 
.  .  .  Ever  does  natural  beauty  steal  in  like 
air,  and  envelope  great  actions."  1 

As  a  final  consideration  of  the  meaning  of 
beauty  Emerson  maintains  with  the  Platonists 
the  unity  of  beauty,  truth  and  goodness. 
They  form  a  trinity  in  which  each  is  but  a 
phase  of  the  divine  presence.  Thus  he  sums 
up  his  account  of  beauty  with  the  words: 
"Beauty,  in  its  largest  and  profoundest  sense, 
is  one  expression  for  the  universe.  God  is 
the  all-fair.  Truth  and  goodness,  and  beauty, 

1  Complete  Works,  1.,  20-21. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  183 

are  but  different  faces  of  the  same  All."  * 
Such  identification  is  characteristic  of 
Proclus's  manner  of  treating  triads  and 
monads.  Gathering  up  what  Plato  had  said 
of  the  relation  of  beauty  and  goodness  and 
wisdom,  he  thus  philosophizes:  "But  what 
sufficient  argument  of  division  does  Socrates 
afTord  us  in  the  Phaedrus,  concerning  these  in 
telligible  triads?  And  how  from  what  is 
delivered  by  him  may  we  recur  to  the  concep 
tion  of  the  hypostasis  of  the  most  principal 
gods?  Socrates,  therefore,  in  that  dialogue, 
being  inspired  by  the  nymphs  celebrates  every 
thing  divine  as  beautiful,  wise  and  good,  and 
says  that  by  these  the  soul  is  nourished.  But 
if  everything  divine  is  a  thing  of  this  kind, 
this  is  the  case  with  the  intelligible  by  a  much 
greater  priority.  And  all  these  are  every 
where,  but  in  the  first  triad,  the  good  princi 
pally  subsists;  in  the  second  the  wise;  and  in 
the  third  the  beautiful.  For  in  this  there  is 
the  most  beautiful  of  intelligibles.  But  in 
the  second  triad  truth  and  the  first  intelligence 
subsist."  a 

Beauty  is  of  such  importance  to  Emerson 
that  he  readily  adopts  the  Pythagorean  notion 

1  Ibid.,  24. 

2  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  I.,  204. 


1 84    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

of  the  world  as  *oo-/«>«  m  h|s  discussion  of 
the  uses  of  nature.  According  to  Plutarch, 
"Pythagoras  was  the  first  philosopher  that 
gave  the  name  of  ^oV/to?  to  the  world  from 
the  order  and  beauty  of  it;  for  so  the  word 
signifies." *  Following  such  a  definition 
Emerson  finds  in  the  love  of  natural  objects 
one  of  the  uses,  though  not  the  final  use,  in 
which  nature  serves  man.  Thus  he  opens  the 
discussion  of  beauty  in  Nature  with  the  state 
ment — "The  ancient  Greeks  called  the  world 
/coVos,  beauty.  Such  is  the  constitution  of 
all  things,  or  such  the  plastic  power  of  the 
human  eye,  that  the  primary  forms  as  the  sky, 
the  mountain,  the  tree,  the  animal,  give  us  a 
delight  in  and  for  themselves;  a  pleasure  aris 
ing  from  outline,  color,  motion  and  group- 
ing."2 

Emerson's  reading  in  the  Platonists,  then, 
was  a  great  stimulus  to  his  appreciation  of 
beauty.  Their  conception  of  a  gradation  of 
beauty  provided  him  with  a  critical  scheme 
to  value  beauty  in  its  primary  manifestation 
and  up  through  the  moral  and  intellectual 
worlds  into  the  realm  of  pure  imagination. 
The  teaching  of  Proclus  of  the  cosmical 

1  Morals,  III.,  132. 

2  Complete  Works,  I.,  15. 


LOVE  AND  BEAUTY  185 

nature  of  beauty,  by  which  the  individual  is 
related  to  the  universal  scheme  of  things,  ap 
pealed  most  strongly  to  Emerson.  It  satisfied 
a  mind  that  loved  to  lose  itself  in  the  thought 
of  universals  and  it  enabled  him  to  appreciate 
the  fugitive  character  of  beauty  arising  out  of 
its  cosmical  quality.  Beauty  is  thus  not 
identified  with  form,  symmetry,  or  color,  but 
is  a  liveliness  quite  distinct  from  these.  In 
catching  this  fascinating  quality  of  beauty 
Emerson  gets  nearer  to  the  spirit  of  Platonism 
than  when  he  develops  his  ideal  of  love. 


CHAPTER  V 

ART 

THE  question  of  art  is  closely  associated 
in  Emerson  with  the  larger  question  of 
nature.  In  his  introduction  to  Nature  he 
includes  the  term  art  under  his  main  topic. 
"Nature,  in  the  common  sense,"  so  his  defini 
tion  runs,  "refers  to  essences  unchanged  by 
man;  space,  the  air,  the  river,  the  leaf.  Art 
is  applied  to  the  mixture  of  his  will  with  the 
same  things,  as  in  a  house,  a  canal,  a  statue, 
a  picture.  But  his  operations  taken  together 
are  so  insignificant,  a  little  chipping,  baking, 
patching  and  washing,  that  in  an  impression 
so  grand  as  that  of  the  world  on  the  human 
mind,  they  do  not  vary  the  result."  *  Later 
in  life,  he  attended  to  this  matter  of  art  with  a 
fullness  of  treatment  in  keeping  with  the  im 
portance  of  the  subject;  but  throughout  his 
art  criticism  there  is  a  close  connection  be 
tween  his  theories  of  nature  and  those  of  art. 
Art,  so  Emerson  conceives  its  general  im- 

1  Complete  Works,  L,  5. 

1 86 


ART  187 

port,  is  one  way  in  which  the  Universal  Mind 
reveals  itself  in  the  activities  of  the  individual. 
"I  hasten  to  state,"  his  account  runs,  "the 
principle  which  prescribes,  through  different 
means,  its  firm  law  to  the  useful  and  the 
beautiful  arts.  The  law  is  this.  The  uni 
versal  soul  is  the  alone  creator  of  the  useful 
and  the  beautiful;  therefore,  to  make  any 
thing  useful  or  beautiful,  the  individual  must 
be  submitted  to  the  universal  mind."  1  In 
both  the  useful  and  the  fine  arts,  nature  is  a 
representative  of  the  universal  mind.  "In 
the  first  place,"  he  proceeds,  "let  us  consider 
this  in  reference  to  the  useful  arts.  Here  the 
omnipotent  agent  is  Nature;  all  human  acts 
are  satellites  to  her  orb.  Nature  is  the  rep 
resentative  of  the  universal  mind,  and  the  law 
becomes  this — that  Art  must  be  a  complement 
to  Nature,  strictly  subsidiary."  2  In  apply 
ing  the  idea  to  the  fine  arts  he  adds,  "Nature 
paints  the  best  part  of  the  picture,  carves  the 
best  part  of  the  statue,  builds  the  best  part  of 
the  house,  and  speaks  the  best  part  of  the 
oration."  3  As  regards  the  spiritual  side  of 
a  work  of  art,  "the  parts  must  be  subordinate 

1  Ibid.,  VII.,  40. 

2  Ibid. 

.,  47. 


188    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

to  Ideal  Nature,  and  everything  individual 
abstracted,  so  that  it  shall  be  the  production 
of  the  universal  soul."  1  He  thus  concludes: 
"There  is  but  one  Reason.  The  mind  that 
made  the  world  is  not  one  mind,  but  the  mind. 
And  every  work  of  art  is  a  more  or  less  pure 
manifestation  of  the  same."  2 

The  doctrine  of  Universal  Mind  is  writ 
large  on  such  a  theory:  and  that  doctrine  Em 
erson  had  appropriated  from  Platonism. 
The  subserviency  of  nature  to  this  mind,  how 
ever,  and  the  part  that  it  and  the  universal 
mind  play  in  human  art  arose  out  of  a  sug 
gestion  which  Emerson  found  in  Cudworth's 
essay  on  plastic  nature  which  he  indexed 
under  "Art"  in  his  own  copy  of  The  True 
Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe.  This 
plastic  nature,  Cudworth  explains,  is  "to  be 
conceived  as  art  acting  not  from  without  and 
at  a  distance,  but  immediately  upon  the  thing 
itself  which  is  formed  by  it." 3  But  this 
plastic  nature  in  its  operations  is  subordinate 
to  the  divine  mind.  Accordingly  he  states: 
"Nature  is  not  the  Deity  itself,  but  a  thing 
very  remote  from  it,  and  far  below  it,  so 

1  Ibid.,  48. 

2  Ibid.,  50-51. 

8  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  I.,  235. 


ART  189 

neither  is  it  the  divine  art,  as  it  is  in  itself 
pure  and  abstract,  but  concrete  and  embodied 
only;  for  the  divine  art  considered  in  itself  is 
nothing  but  knowledge,  understanding,  or 
wisdom  in  the  mind  of  God."  1  "Nature  is 
not  master  of  that  consummate  art  and  wis 
dom,  according  to  which  it  acts,  but  only  a 
servant  to  it,  and  a  drudging  executioner  of 
the  dictates  of  it."  2  Quoting  Plotinus,  from 
whom  the  theory  is  drawn,  he  says,  "That 
which  is  called  nature  is  the  offspring  of  a 
higher  soul,  which  hath  a  more  powerful  life 
in  it."  3  Now  by  substituting  his  own  name 
for  God,  namely,  Universal  Mind,  Emerson 
was  able  to  use  Cudworth's  account  as  the 
basis  of  his  essay,  Art. 

Further  evidence  of  his  dependence  upon 
Cudworth  is  to  be  found  in  his  preliminary 
definition  of  art.  "Relatively  to  themselves," 
he  says,  "the  bee,  the  bird,  the  beaver,  have 
no  art;  for  what  they  do  they  do  instinctively; 
but  relatively  to  the  Supreme  Being,  they 
have.  And  the  same  is  true  of  all  uncon 
scious  action:  relatively  to  the  doer,  it  is  in 
stinct;  relatively  to  the  First  Cause,  it  is  Art. 


id.,  I,  237-238. 
2  Ibid.,  I.,  239. 
*Ibid.,  I.,  256. 


190    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

In  this  sense,  recognizing  the  Spirit  which  in 
forms  Nature,  Plato  rightly  said,  'Those 
things,  which  are  said  to  be  done  by  Nature 
are  indeed  done  by  Divine  Art.'  Art,  uni 
versally,  is  the  spirit  creative.  It  was  defined 
by  Aristotle,  'The  reason  of  the  thing,  with 
out  the  matter.'  "  1 

In  Cudworth's  account  both  these  quota 
tions  are  found  and  in  Emerson's  copy  both 
are  marked.  "Wherefore  when  art  is  said  to 
imitate  nature,"  writes  Cudworth,  "the  mean 
ing  thereof  is,  that  imperfect  human  art  imi 
tates  that  perfect  art  of  nature,  which  is 
really  no  other  than  the  divine  art  itself;  as 
before  Aristotle,  Plato  had  declared  in  his 
Sophist,  in  these  words:  *.  .  .  Those 
things  which  are  said  to  be  done  by  Nature, 
are  indeed  done  by  divine  art.'  " 2  "Art  is 
defined  by  Aristotle  to  be  '.  .  .  the  rea 
son  of  the  thing  without  matter.' " 3  It  is 
also  to  be  recalled  that  the  motto  from  Plo- 
tinus  prefixed  to  the  first  edition  of  Nature 
came  from  this  portion  of  Cudworth  where 
plastic  nature  is  discussed. 

So  imbued  is  Emerson  with  the  doctrine  of 

1  Complete  Works,  VII.,  39. 

2  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  L,  237. 

3  Ibid.,  L,  238. 


ART  191 

Universal  Mind  as  the  creator  in  all  art  that 
he  uses  it  to  explain  certain  phenomena  in 
aesthetics.  The  pleasure  aroused  by  a  work 
of  art  seems  to  arise  from  our  recognizing  in 
it  the  mind  that  formed  nature  again  in  active 
operation.1  The  same  principle  also  explains 
the  moral  grandeur  of  works  of  art;  they 
come  from  absolute  mind  whose  nature  is 
goodness  as  well  as  truth.2  The  analogies  ex 
isting  in  all  arts  likewise  find  an  explanation 
in  the  reappearance  of  one  mind  working  to 
many  temporal  ends  in  many  materials.3 
The  necessity,  too,  reigning  in  the  world  of 
art  is  one  of  the  possible  forms  in  the  Divine 
mind  discovered  and  executed  by  the  artist.4 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  how  the 
doctrine  of  Universal  Mind  changes  into  that 
of  the  Over-Soul.  Both  mean  the  same  thing 
in  Emerson.  In  the  Over-Soul  he  lays  em 
phasis  upon  the  relation  of  the  divine  power 
to  the  human  soul  ;  the  former  stands  over  the 
latter  and  guides  its  activities,  just  as  in  the 
scheme  of  the  Platonists  the  One  is  above  In 
tellect  and  Intellect  above  Soul,  each  princi- 

1  Complete  Works,  VII.,  51. 

2  Ibid. 
*Ibid.,  52. 

54. 


Of    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

Of 


192     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

pie  drawing  its  life  from  that  immediately 
above  it  in  power.  By  applying  this  concep 
tion  to  the  relation  of  the  divine  mind  to  the 
artist  Emerson  explains  the  manner  of  crea 
tion  in  art: 

"Know'st  thou  what  wove  yon  wood-bird's  nest 
Of  leaves,  and  feathers  from  her  breast? 
Or  how  the  fish  outbuilt  her  shell, 
Painting  with  morn  each  annual  cell? 
Or  how  the  sacred  pine-tree  adds 
To  her  old  leaves  new  myriads? 
Such  and  so  grew  these  holy  piles 
Whilst  love  and  terror  laid  the  tiles. 
Earth  proudly  wears  the  Parthenon 
As  the  best  gem  upon  her  zone, 
And  Morning  opes  with  haste  her  lids 
To  gaze  upon  the  Pyramids; 
O'er  England's  abbeys  bends  the  sky, 
As  on  its  friends,  with  kindred  eye. 

These  temples  grew  as  grows  the  grass; 

Art  might  obey,  but  not  surpass. 

The  passive  Master  lent  his  hand 

To  the  vast  soul  that  o'er  him  planned ; 

And  the  same  power  that  reared  the  shrine 

Bestrode  the  tribes  that  knelt  within."  1 

*  Ibid.,  IX.,  7-& 


ART  193 

Among  the  arts  poetry  receives  the  fullest 
share  of  Emerson's  attention.  In  the  ideal 
poet  he  found  the  complete  man  whose  ad 
vent  he  was  ever  expecting;  in  him  he  looked 
to  find  the  embodiment  under  the  form  of 
beauty  of  all  that  he  had  come  to  learn  con 
cerning  nature  and  the  soul :  in  fact  the  poet 
and  the  philosopher  were  to  be  one. 

At  first  sight  this  fusion  of  poetry  and  phi 
losophy  seems  to  preclude  the  influence  of 
Platonism  as  an  important  factor  in  such  a 
result.  Plato  had  banished  the  poets  from 
his  commonwealth  and  had  analyzed  their  art 
as  an  imitation  of  an  imitation  and  not  an 
imitation  of  reality.  He  had  thus  come  to 
place  the  poet  just  a  little  above  a  mechanic 
or  farmer.  But  Plotinus  had  corrected  the 
error.  "If  one  condemns  the  arts,"  he  says, 
"because  they  create  by  way  of  imitation  of 
nature,  first  we  must  observe  that  natural 
things  themselves  are  an  imitation  of  some 
thing  further  [viz.,  of  underlying  reasons  or 
ideas],  and  next  we  must  bear  in  mind  that 
the  arts  do  not  simply  imitate  the  visible,  but 
go  back  to  the  reasons  from  which  nature 
comes;  and,  further,  that  they  create  much 
out  of  themselves,  and  add  to  that  which  is 


194    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

defective,  as  being  themselves  in  possession  of 
beauty;  since  Pheidias  did  not  create  his  Zeus 
after  any  perceived  pattern,  but  made  him 
such  as  he  would  be  if  Zeus  deigned  to  appear 
to  mortal  eyes."  * 

Through  such  reasoning  Plotinus  brought 
Platonism  back  to  a  fuller  realization  of  the 
plastic  character  of  its  own  thought.  Plato 
had  appealed  to  this  Greek  way  of  looking 
at  things  of  the  spirit  in  his  account  of  crea 
tion;  in  his  Timceus  the  Creator  sets  about  his 
work  as  an  artist  and  fashions  the  world  after 
an  eternal  pattern  of  ideal  or  intellectual 
beauty;  hence  the  dependence  of  this  world 
of  sense  as  an  image  on  the  world  of  true  in 
telligible  substance.  But  he  had  never  ap 
plied  the  idea  to  art.  Plotinus,  however,  did. 
He  turned  the  tide  of  imitation  into  a  re 
sourceful  stream  of  pure  creation.  Art,  then, 
as  a  creative  idea  in  the  soul  of  the  artist  had 
a  beauty  surpassing  that  of  the  works  pro 
ceeding  from  it;  and  just  as  the  Creator  in 
the  Timceus  was  superior  to  his  work,  or  the 
universe,  so  the  human  artist  rises  above  his 
work  and  lives  in  an  essentially  ideal  world  of 
his  own. 

1  Quoted   in   Bernard  Bosanquet,  A  History  of  ^Esthetic, 
113-114- 


ART  195 

In  Emerson  this  conception  of  art  is  found 
in  snatches  of  aesthetic  theory.  "The  beauty 
of  nature  re-forms  itself  in  the  mind,  and  not 
for  barren  contemplation,  but  for  the  new  cre 
ation."  1  "The  creation  of  beauty  is  Art."  2 
"Thus  is  Art  a  nature  passed  through  the  alem 
bic  of  man.  Thus  in  art  does  Nature  work 
through  the  will  of  a  man  filled  with  the 
beauty  of  her  first  works."  3  "The  soul  cre 
ated  the  arts  wherever  they  have  flourished. 
It  was  in  his  own  mind  that  the  artist  sought 
his  model."  4  York  Minster  and  St.  Peter's 
are  imitations,  "faint  copies  of  an  invisible 
archtype."  5  In  such  statements  art  is  con 
ceived  as  a  creative  power  in  the  artist,  and 
not  a  mere  imitation  lacking  reality. 

But  it  was  Proclus  that  showed  Emerson 
how  the  breach  between  poetry  and  philoso 
phy  opened  by  Plato's  criticism  could  be 
closed.  Although  Plotinus  had  justified  the 
artist  as  a  creative  agent,  he  had  not  attempted 
to  identify  him  with  the  philosopher.  But 
this  Proclus  did  in  an  account  of  poetry  which 
contains,  in  the  words  of  Thomas  Taylor,  who 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  23. 

2  Ibid. 

3  Ibid.,  24. 
*Ibid.,  II.,  S2. 

rf.,  I.,  68. 


196    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

includes  the  passage  in  his  notes  to  Plato's 
Republic,  "a  most  accurate  and  scientific  di 
vision  of  poetry,  and  perfectly  reconciles  the 
prince  of  philosophers  with  the  first  of 
poets."  *  This  reconciliation  is  brought  about 
by  summarily  paralleling  the  activities  of  the 
soul  with  the  functions  of  the  various  kinds  of 
poetry. 

"There  are  three  lives  in  the  soul,"  says 
Proclus,  "of  which  the  best  and  most  perfect 
is  that  according  to  which  it  is  conjoined  with 
the  Gods,  and  lives  a  life  most  allied,  and 
through  the  highest  similitude  united  to  them ; 
no  longer  subsisting  from  itself,  but  from 
them,  running  under  its  own  intellect,  exciting 
the  ineffable  impressions  of  the  one  which  it 
contains,  and  connecting  like  with  like,  its  own 
light  with  that  of  the  Gods,  and  that  which  is 
most  uniform  in  its  own  essence  and  life,  with 
the  one  which  is  above  all  essence  and  life. 
That  which  is  second  to  this  in  dignity  and 
power,  has  a  middle  arrangement  in  the  mid 
dle  of  the  soul,  according  to  which  indeed  it 
is  converted  to  itself,  descending  from  a  di 
vinely  inspired  life;  and  placing  intellect  and 
science  as  the  principles  of  its  energy,  it 

1  The  Works  of  Plato,  translated  by  Thomas  Taylor,  I., 
438,  note. 


ART  197 

evolves  the  multitude  of  its  reasons,  surveys 
the  all-various  mutations  of  forms,  collects 
into  sameness  intellect,  and  that  which  is  the 
object  of  intellect,  and  expresses  in  images  an 
intellectual  and  intelligible  essence.  The 
third  life  of  the  soul  is  that  which  accords 
with  its  inferior  powers,  and  energizes  to 
gether  with  them,  employing  phantasies  and 
irrational  senses,  and  being  entirely  filled  with 
things  of  a  subordinate  nature. 

"As  there  are  therefore  these  three  forms  of 
life  in  souls,  the  poetical  division  also  super- 
nally  proceeds  together  with  the  multiform 
lives  of  the  soul,  and  is  diversified  into  first, 
middle,  and  last  genera  of  energy.  For,  of 
poetry  also,  one  kind  has  the  highest  subsist 
ence,  is  full  of  divine  goods,  and  establishes 
the  soul  in  the  causes  themselves  of  things,  ac 
cording  to  a  certain  ineffable  union,  leading 
that  which  is  filled,  into  sameness  with  its  re 
plenishing  source;  the  former  immaterially 
subjecting  itself  to  illumination,  but  the  latter 
being  excited  to  a  communication  of  light; 
thus  according  to  the  Oracle,  'perfecting 
works,  by  mingling  the  rivers  of  incorruptible 
fire.'  It  also  produces  one  divine  bond  and  a 
unifying  mixture  of  that  which  is  partici 
pated  and  the  participant,  establishing  the 


198    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

whole  of  that  which  is  subordinate  in  that 
which  is  more  excellent,  and  preparing  that 
which  is  more  divine  alone  to  energize,  the  in 
ferior  nature  being  withdrawn,  and  conceal 
ing  its  own  idiom  in  that  which  is  superior. 
This  then,  in  short,  is  a  mania  better  than  tem 
perance,  and  is  distinguished  by  a  divine  char 
acteristic.  And  as  every  different  kind  of 
poetry  subsists  according  to  a  different 
hyparxis,  or  summit  of  divine  essence,  so  this 
fills  the  soul  energizing  from  divine  inspira 
tion,  with  symmetry;  and  hence  it  adorns  its 
last  energies  with  measures  and  rhythms.  As 
therefore  we  say  that  prophetic  fury  subsists 
according  to  truth,  and  the  amatory  accord 
ing  to  beauty,  in  the  like  manner,  we  say,  that 
the  poetic  mania  is  defined  according  to  divine 
symmetry. 

"The  second  kind  of  poetry  which  is  subor 
dinate  to  the  first  and  divinely  inspired 
species,  and  which  has  a  middle  subsistence  in 
the  soul,  is  allotted  its  essence  according  to  a 
scientific  and  intellectual  habit.  Hence  it 
knows  the  essence  of  things  and  loves  to  con 
template  beautiful  works  and  reasonings,  and 
leads  forth  everything  into  a  measured  and 
rhythmical  interpretation.  For  you  will  find 
many  progeny  of  good  poets  to  be  of  this  kind, 


ART  199 

emulous  of  those  that  are  truly  wise,  full  of 
admonition,  the  best  counsels,  and  intellectual 
symmetry.  It  likewise  extends  the  commu 
nication  of  prudence  and  every  other  virtue  to 
those  of  a  naturally  good  disposition,  and  af 
fords  a  reminiscence  of  the  periods  of  the  soul, 
of  its  eternal  reasons,  and  various  powers. 

"The  third  species  of  poetry  subsequent  to 
these,  is  mingled  with  opinions  and  phan 
tasies,  receives  its  completion  through  imita 
tion,  and  is  said  to  be,  and  is  nothing  else  than 
imitative  poetry.  At  one  time,  it  alone  uses 
assimilation,  and  at  another  time  defends  ap 
parent  and  not  real  assimilation.  It  consid 
erably  raises  very  moderate  passions,  aston 
ishes  the  hearers;  together  with  appropriate 
appellations  and  wrords,  mutations  of  har 
monies  and  varieties  of  rhythms,  changes  the 
dispositions  of  souls;  and  indicates  the  nature 
of  things  not  such  as  they  are,  but  such  as  they 
appear  to  the  many;  being  a  certain  adum 
bration,  and  not  an  accurate  knowledge  of 
things.  It  also  establishes  as  its  end  the  de 
light  of  the  hearers;  and  particularly  looks  to 
the  passive  part  of  the  soul,  which  is  naturally 
adapted  to  rejoice  and  be  affected.  But  of 
this  species  of  poetry,  as  we  have  said,  one 
division  is  assimilative,  which  is  extended  to 


200    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

rectitude  of  imitation,  but  the  other  is  phan- 
tastic,  and  affords  apparent  imitation  alone."  * 

Proclus  then  shows  that  Plato  mentions 
these  kinds  of  poetry  and  that  Homer  was 
skilled  in  them  all,  especially  the  enthusiastic 
variety.  He  concludes  by  stating  that  the 
reason  why  Plato  was  so  severe  on  Homer  was 
that  in  Plato's  time  poetry  was  overestimated 
and  philosophy  undervalued.2  In  Proclus, 
then,  is  found  the  highest  justification  of 
poetry  and  its  intimate  alliance  with  the  prin 
ciples  of  Platonism.  Corresponding  to  the 
three  principles  are  three  kinds  of  poetry. 

Emerson  had  marked  this  dissertation  of 
Proclus'  in  his  own  copy.  It  gave  an  account 
of  poetry  quite  in  keeping  with  his  sentiments. 
And  although  he  does  not  follow  Proclus  in 
the  details  of  his  comparison,  Emerson  is  one 
with  him  in  correlating  the  method  of  poetry 
with  that  of  philosophy. 

Emerson  places  the  poet  on  an  equal  with 
the  man  of  action  and  the  man  of  knowledge. 
The  three  form  a  trinity  of  persons  distinct  yet 
equal  in  power.  "For  the  Universe,"  he 
writes,  "has  three  children,  born  at  one  time, 

1  Quoted  in  The   Works  of  Plato,  translated  by  Thomas 
Taylor,  I.,  438,  note. 

2  Ibid.,  note,  439  et  sq. 


ART  201 

which  reappear  under  different  names  in 
every  system  of  thought,  whether  they  be 
called  cause,  operation  and  effect;  or,  more 
poetically,  Jove,  Pluto,  Neptune;  or,  theo 
logically,  the  Father,  the  Spirit  and  the  Son; 
but  which  we  will  call  here  the  Knower, 
the  Doer  and  the  Sayer.  These  stand  respec 
tively  for  the  love  of  truth,  for  the  love  of 
good,  and  for  the  love  of  beauty.  These  three 
are  equal.  Each  is  that  which  he  is,  essen 
tially,  so  that  he  cannot  be  surmounted  or 
analyzed,  and  each  of  these  three  has  the 
power  of  the  others  latent  in  him  and  his  own, 
patent."  1 

This  basic  principle  which  defines  the  re 
lation  of  the  poet  to  a  general  scheme  of  things 
is  an  amplification  of  the  familiar  Platonic 
doctrine  of  the  trinity  of  the  beautiful,  the 
good,  and  the  true.  Emerson's  treatment  of  it 
here  is  reminiscent  of  a  discussion  in  Cud- 
worth.  In  his  treatment  of  the  pagan  deities 
Cudworth  points  out  how  one  group  of  their 
gods  makes  up  "one  orderly  and  harmonious 
system  of  the  whole ;  one  of  those  gods  ruling 
only  in  the  heavens,  another  in  the  sea,  and  an 
other  in  the  earth  and  hell ;  one  being  the  god 
or  goddess  of  learning  and  wisdom,  another  of 

1  Complete  Works,  III.,  6-7. 


202    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

speech  and  eloquence,  another  of  justice  and 
political  order."  1  The  reference  in  the  first 
group  is  to  Jupiter,  Neptune,  and  Pluto,  who 
Cudworth  adds,  "were  not  three  really  dis 
tinct  substantial  beings,  but  only  so  many  sev 
eral  names  for  one  supreme  God."  2  From 
the  second  group  in  Cudworth,  Emerson  got 
his  series,  the  Knower,  the  Sayer,  and  the 
Doer.  And  the  identification  of  the  three 
with  the  primary  conception  of  love  of  truth, 
love  of  beauty,  and  love  of  good,  shows  how 
the  principles  of  Platonism  were  the  guiding 
factors  in  Emerson's  thinking. 

To  justify  the  poet  as  the  representative 
sayer,  or  namer  of  things,  Emerson  explains 
the  poet's  insight  into  the  symbolical  nature  of 
the  universe.  The  materials  of  his  craft  are 
symbols.  "Nature  offers  all  her  creatures  to 
him  as  a  picture  language.  Being  used  as  a 
type,  a  second  wonderful  value  appears  in  the 
object,  far  better  than  its  old  value;  as  the 
carpenter's  stretched  cord,  if  you  hold  your 
ear  close  enough,  is  musical  in  the  breeze. 
'Things  more  excellent  than  every  image,' 
says  Jamblichus,  'are  expressed  through 
images.'  Things  admit  of  being  used  as  sym- 

1  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  I.,  364. 
»/&«.,  II,  223. 


ART  203 

bols  because  nature  is  a  symbol,  in  the  whole, 
and  in  every  part."  1 

This  conception  of  the  poet  is  a  growth  out 
of  Emerson's  familiar  way  of  looking  at  na 
ture  as  a  symbol,  which  truth  he  had  learned 
in  his  study  of  Platonism.  The  quotation  of 
lamblichus,  too,  points  to  the  character  of  the 
idea;  it  is  a  sentiment  which  lamblichus  uses 
in  explaining  the  true  nature  of  a  sacred  in 
stitution,  which  he  says  "imitates  both  the  in 
telligible  and  celestial  order  of  the  Gods;  and 
contains  the  eternal  measures  of  beings,  and 
those  admirable  signatures  which  are  sent 
hither  from  the  Demiurgus  and  father  of 
wholes,  by  which  things  of  an  ineffable  nature 
are  unfolded  into  light  through  arcane  sym 
bols,  things  formless  are  vanquished  by  forms, 
things  more  excellent  than  every  image  are  ex 
pressed  through  images.  .  *  ." 2 

The  material  of  the  poet's  craft  being  sym 
bols,  the  poet  is  the  man  who  knows  how  to 
articulate  them.  All  men,  whether  con 
sciously  or  not,  love  symbols  and  use  them  but 
"the  poet,  by  an  ulterior  intellectual  percep 
tion,  gives  them  a  power  which  makes  their  old 
use  forgotten,  and  puts  eyes  and  a  tongue  into 

1  Complete  Works,  III.,  13. 

2  On  the  Mysteries,  79-80. 


204    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

every  dumb  and  inanimate  object.  He  per 
ceives  the  independence  of  the  thought  on  the 
symbol,  the  stability  of  the  thought,  the  acci- 
dency  and  the  f  ugacity  of  the  symbol.  As  the 
eyes  of  Lyncaeus  were  said  to  see  through  the 
earth,  so  the  poet  turns  the  world  to, glass,  and 
shows  us  all  things  in  their  right  series  and 
procession.  For  through  that  better  percep 
tion  he  stands  one  step  nearer  to  things,  and 
sees  the  flowing  or  metamorphosis ;  perceives 
that  thought  is  multiform;  that  within  the 
form  of  every  creature  is  a  force  impelling  it 
to  ascend  into  a  higher  form;  and  following 
with  his  eyes  the  life,  uses  the  forms  which  ex 
press  that  life,  and  so  his  speech  flows  with  the 
flowing  of  nature.  .  .  .  He  uses  forms 
according  to  the  life  and  not  according  to  the 
form.  This  is  true  science.  ...  By  vir 
tue  of  this  science  the  poet  is  the  Namer  or 
Language-maker,  naming  things  sometimes 
after  their  appearance,  sometimes  after  their 
essence,  and  giving  to  every  one  its  own  name 
and  not  another's,  thereby  rejoicing  the  intel 
lect,  which  delights  in  detachment  or  bound 
ary."  l 

In  such  a  theory  Platonism  plays  its  part  by 
giving  the  idea  of  flux,  which  Emerson  inter- 

1  Complete  Works,  III.,  20-21. 


ART  205 

prets  in  characteristic  wise  as  an  ascension. 
His  theory  also  recalls  Plato's  discussion  of 
language  in  the  Gratylus.  Here  is  found  the 
mention  of  an  original  legislator  who  is  rep 
resented  as  naming  things,  some  according  to 
the  flux  of  things,  and  others  according  to 
stability.  The  majority  of  words  seem  to  in 
dicate  flux,  says  Plato,  but  there  are  other 
names  "from  which,"  he  adds,  "one  would 
imagine,  that  the  founder  of  names  did  not  in 
dicate  things  going  on  and  borne  along,  but 
such  as  have  an  abiding."  1  And  finally  in 
identifying  poetry  with  true  science,  Emer 
son  presents  an  ideal  of  the  poet  very  like  that 
ideal  which  Porphyry  says  Plotinus  repre 
sented.  "Plotinus  likewise  applied  himself," 
Porphyry  writes,  "to  the  canons  concerning  the 
stars,  but  not  according  to  a  very  mathemat 
ical  mode.  That  is,  we  may  presume,  he  very 
little  regarded  the  calculation  of  eclipses,  or 
measuring  the  distance  of  the  sun  and  moon 
from  the  earth,  or  determining  the  magni 
tudes  and  velocities  of  the  planets.  For  he 
considered  employments  of  this  kind,  as  more 
the  province  of  the  mathematician,  than  of  the 
profound  and  intellectual  philosopher.  The 
mathematical  sciences  are  indeed  the  proper 

1  Bohn  translation,  III.,  388. 


206    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

means  of  acquiring  wisdom,  but  they  ought 
never  to  be  considered  as  its  end.  They  are 
the  bridge,  as  it  were,  between  sense  and  in 
tellect,  by  which  we  may  safely  pass  through 
the  night  of  oblivion,  over  the  dark  and 
stormy  ocean  of  matter,  to  the  lucid  regions 
of  the  intelligible  world.  And  he  who  is  de 
sirous  of  returning  to  his  true  country,  will 
speedily  pass  over  this  bridge  without  making 
any  needless  delays  in  his  passage."  1 

Such  a  conception  agrees  well  with  Emer 
son's  encomium  of  the  poet.  "The  poet  alone 
knows  astronomy,  chemistry,  vegetation  and 
animation,  for  he  does  not  stop  at  these  facts, 
but  employs  them  as  signs.  He  knows  why 
the  plain  or  meadow  of  space  was  strown  with 
flowers  we  call  suns  and  moons  and  stars ;  why 
the  great  deep  is  adorned  with  animals,  with 
men,  and  gods ;  for  in  every  word  he  speaks  he 
rides  on  them  as  the  horses  of  thought."  2 

In  referring  to  Lyncaeus  to  explain  the 
acuteness  of  the  poet's  spiritual  vision  Emer 
son  shows  indebtedness  to  Plotinus.  In  ex 
plaining  the  relation  of  each  thing  in  the  in 
telligible  world  to  the  whole  Plotinus  writes : 

1  Select  Works,  Introduction,  liii-liv.    Cf.  Complete  Works, 
III.,  298,  note  to  p.  21. 

2  Complete  Works,  III.,  21. 


ART  207 

"For  it  appears  indeed  as  a  part;  but  by  him 
whose  sight  is  acute,  it  will  be  seen  as  a  whole  ; 
viz.,  by  him  whose  sight  resembles  that  which 
Lynceus  is  said  to  have  possessed,  and  which 
penetrated  the  interior  parts  of  the  earth;  the 
fable  obscurely  indicating  the  acuteness  of  the 
vision  of  supernal  eyes."  1  Recollecting  this 
passage,  which  he  had  marked  in  his  own 
copy,  Emerson  writes:  "As  the  eyes  of 
Lyncaeus  were  said  to  see  through  the  earth, 
so  the  poet  turns  the  world  to  glass,  and  shows 
us  all  things  in  their  right  series  and  pro 


cession." 


This  application  to  the  poet  of  what  the 
Platonists  had  said  about  the  philosopher  is 
illustrated  in  Emerson's  further  appropri 
ations  from  his  reading.  "Our  best  definition 
of  poetry,"  he  writes,  "is  one  of  the  oldest 
sentences,  and  claims  to  come  down  to  us  from 
the  Chaldean  Zoroaster,  who  wrote  it  thus: 
Toets  are  standing  transporters,  whose  em 
ployment  consist  in  speaking  to  the  Father 
and  to  matter;  in  producing  apparent  imita 
tions  of  unapparent  natures,  and  inscribing 
things  unapparent  in  the  apparent  fabrica 
tion  of  the  world  ;'  in  other  words,  the  world 

1  Select  Works,  Introduction,  Ixxxi. 

2  Complete  Works,  III.,  20. 


208    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

exists  for  thought;  it  is  to  make  appear  things 
which  hide;  mountains,  crystals,  animals,  are 
seen :  that  which  makes  them  is  not  seen :  these, 
then,  are  'apparent  copies  of  unapparent  na 
tures.' 

This  quotation,  which  Emerson  includes  in 
a  list  of  generalizations  that  "all  have  a  kind 
of  filial  retrospect  to  Plato  and  the  Greeks,"  2 
is  from  Taylor's  Collection  of  Chaldean 
Oracles,  where  connection  of  the  oracle  with 
the  poets  is  in  no  wise  intimated.  In  the 
original  form  it  reads:  "Rulers  who  under 
stand  the  intelligible  works  of  the  Father. 
These  he  spreads  like  a  veil  over  sensible 
works  and  bodies.  They  are  standing  trans 
porters,  whose  employment  consists  in  speak 
ing  to  the  Father  and  to  matter;  in  producing 
apparent  imitations  of  unapparent  natures; 
and  in  inscribing  things  unapparent  in  the  ap 
parent  fabrication  of  the  world."  3 

Poetry  and  philosophy,  then,  are  one;  but 
with  a  difference.  "Whilst  the  poet  ani 
mates  nature  with  his  own  thoughts,"  Emerson 
observes  in  distinguishing  them,  "he  differs 

1  Ibid.,  VIII.,  19. 

a/Md.,  V.,  241. 

8  Classical  Journal,  XVII.,  250. 


ART  209 

from  the  philosopher  only  herein,  that  the  one 
proposes  Beauty  as  his  main  end;  the  other 
Truth.  .  .  .  The  true  philosopher  and 
the  true  poet  are  one,  and  a  beauty,  which  is 
truth,  and  a  truth,  which  is  beauty,  is  the  aim 
of  both."  l 

In  support  of  such  a  theory  Emerson  ap 
peals  to  the  identity  in  charm  of  a  definition 
in  philosophy  and  a  work  of  art,  such  as 
Sophocles'  Antigone.2  "I  will  not  now  con 
sider,"  he  writes,  "how  much  this  makes  the 
charm  of  algebra  and  the  mathematics,  which 
also  have  their  tropes,  but  it  is  felt  in  every 
definition:  as  ...  when  Plato  defines  a 
line  to  be  a  flowing  point;  or  figure  to  be  a 
bound  of  solid.  .  .  .  When  Socrates,  in 
Charmides,  tells  us  that  the  soul  is  cured  of  its 
maladies  by  certain  incantations,  and  that 
these  incantations  are  beautiful  reasons,  from 
which  temperance  is  generated  in  souls;  when 
Plato  calls  the  world  an  animal,  and  Timaeus 
affirms  that  the  plants  also  are  animals;  or 
affirms  a  man  to  be  a  heavenly  tree,  growing 
with  his  root,  which  is  his  head,  upward; 
.  .  .  when  Orpheus  speaks  of  hoariness 

1  Complete  Works,  L,  55. 

2  Ibid. 


210    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

as  'that  white  flower  which  marks  extreme 
old  age' ;  when  Proclus  calls  the  universe  the 
statue  of  the  intellect.  .  .  ."  1 

This  use  of  symbols  in  poetry  as  well  as 
philosophy,  has  a  certain  power  of  exhilaration 
for  all  men.  "Poets  are  thus  liberating 
Gods."  2  In  thus  characterizing  them  Emer 
son  is  alluding  to  one  of  the  technical  terms 
common  in  the  writings  of  the  Platonists.  In 
the  Platonists  the  term  is  "liberated  gods,"  and 
refers  to  an  order  of  gods,  "who,"  so  Taylor  in 
forms  us,  "are  called  supercelestial,  as  being 
immediately  above  the  mundane  gods." 3 
They  are  also  the  "azonic"  gods  of  which 
Emerson  elsewhere  speaks.4 

In  describing  the  character  of  poetic  in 
spiration  Emerson  makes  a  further  indentifi- 
cation  of  the  poet  with  the  philosopher.  "It 
is  a  secret  which  every  intellectual  man 
quickly  learns,"  Emerson  explains,  "that  be 
yond  the  energy  of  his  possessed  and  conscious 
intellect  he  is  capable  of  a  new  energy  (as  of 
an  intellect  doubled  on  itself),  by  abandon 
ment  to  the  nature  of  things;  that  beside  his 

1  Complete  Works,  III.,  30-31. 

2  Ibid.,  30. 

8  Proclus,    Commentaries    on    the    Timceus    of   Plato,    II., 
12,  note  7. 

*  Complete  Works,  VII.,  203. 


ART  211 

privacy  of  power  as  an  individual  man,  there 
is  a  great  public  power  on  which  he  can  draw, 
by  unlocking,  at  all  risks,  his  human  doors, 
and  suffering  the  ethereal  tides  to  roll  and  cir 
culate  through  him;  then  he  is  caught  up  into 
the  life  of  the  Universe,  his  speech  is  thunder, 
his  thought  is  law,  and  his  words  are  univer 
sally  intelligible  as  the  plants  and  animals."  * 
In  thus  speaking,  Emerson  is  giving  his  ver 
sion  of  the  way  in  which  the  Platonists  main 
tain  the  intellect  perceives  the  One  in  ecstasy. 
Plotinus  writes  of  this  experience:  "Hence 
it  is  requisite,  that  the  soul  of  him  who  ascends 
to  the  good  should  then  become  intellect,  and 
that  he  should  commit  his  soul  to,  and  estab 
lish  it  in  intellect,  in  order,  that  what  intellect 
sees,  his  soul  may  vigilantly  receive,  and  may 
through  intellect  survey  the  one;  not  employ 
ing  any  one  of  the  senses,  nor  receiving  any 
thing  from  them,  but  with  a  pure  intellect, 
and  with  the  summit  [and  as  it  were,  flower] 
of  intellect,  beholding  that  which  is  most 
pure."2  And  again  Plotinus  writes:  "In 
tellect  possesses  a  two  fold  power;  one,  by 
which  it  perceives  intellectually,  and  beholds 
the  form  which  it  contains  ;  but  the  other  by 


id.,  III.,  26-27. 
2  Select  Works,  476-477. 


212    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

which  it  sees  things  beyond  itself  by  a  cer 
tain  intuition  and  reception.  .  .  .  And 
the  former,  indeed,  is  the  vision  of  intellect  re 
plete  with  wisdom;  but  the  latter,  of  intellect 
inflamed  with  love.  For  when  it  becomes  in 
sane  through  being  intoxicated  with  nectar, 
then  it  also  becomes  amatory."  1  In  Emerson 
the  same  or  similar  expressions  occur.  "The 
poet  knows  that  he  speaks  adequately  then 
only  when  he  speaks  somewhat  wildly,  or, 
'with  the  flower  of  the  mind;'  not  with  the 
intellect  used  as  an  organ,  but  with  the  intel 
lect  released  from  all  service  and  suffered  to 
take  its  direction  from  its  celestial  life;  or  as 
the  ancients  were  wont  to  express  themselves, 
not  with  intellect  alone  but  with  the  intellect 
inebriated  by  nectar."  2 

And  just  as  Emerson  found  in  Zoroaster's 
Oracles  a  definition  for  poetry,  so  he  is  able 
to  make  him  explain  the  nature  of  the  poet's 
ecstasy.  "It  is  remarkable,"  he  observes, 
"that  we  have,  out  of  the  deeps  of  antiquity  in 
the  oracles  ascribed  to  the  half  fabulous 
Zoroaster,  a  statement  of  this  fact  which  every 
lover  and  seeker  of  truth  will  recognize.  'It 
is  not  proper,'  said  Zoroaster,  'to  understand 

1  On  Suicide,  98. 

2  Complete  Works,  III.,  27. 


ART  213 

the  Intelligible  with  vehemence,  but  if  you  in 
cline  your  mind,  you  will  apprehend  it:  not 
too  earnestly,  but  bringing  a  pure  and  inquir 
ing  eye.  You  will  not  understand  it  as  when 
understanding  some  particular  thing,  but  with 
the  flower  of  the  mind.  Things  divine  are 
not  attainable  by  mortals  who  understand 
sensual  things,  but  only  the  light-armed  ar 
rive  at  the  summit."  * 

In  Taylor's  Collection  of  Chaldean  Oracles 
this  oracle  is  given  in  three  separate  extracts, 
(i)  "You  will  not  apprehend  it  by  an  intellec 
tual  energy,  as  when  understanding  some  par 
ticular  thing."  (2)  "It  is  not  proper  to  under 
stand  that  intelligible  with  vehemence,  but 
with  the  extended  flame  of  an  extended  in 
tellect;  a  flame  which  measures  all  things,  ex 
cept  that  intelligible.  But  it  is  requisite  to 
understand  this.  For  if  you  incline  your 
mind,  you  will  understand  it  though  not  ve 
hemently.  It  becomes  you  therefore,  bring 
ing  with  you  the  pure  convertible  eye  of  your 
soul,  to  extend  the  void  intellect  to  the  intelli 
gible  that  you  may  learn  its  nature,  because  it 
has  a  subsistence  above  intellect."  2  In  a  note 
to  this  is  added:  "This  is  spoken  of  a  divine 

1  Ibid.,  I.,  213-214. 

2  Classical  Journal,  XVI.,  133. 


214    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

intelligible  which  is  only  to  be  apprehended 
by  the  flower  of  intellect,  or,  in  other  words, 
the  unity  of  the  soul." 1  (3)  Again  the 
Oracles  read :  "Things  divine  cannot  be  ob 
tained  by  those  whose  intellectual  eye  is  di 
rected  to  body;  but  those  only  can  arrive  at 
the  possession  of  them,  who,  stript  of  their  gar 
ments,  hasten  to  the  summit."  2  The  assem 
bling  of  this  material  and  the  pruning  of  the 
verbiage  show  how  carefully  Emerson  had 
read  the  passages. 

To  explain  the  nature  of  inspiration  Emer 
son  draws  on  other  quotations  £rom  his  fa 
vorite  books.  As  to  the  conditions  of  in 
spiration,  he  refers  to  Plato.  "Plato,  in  his 
seventh  epistle,"  he  writes,  "notes  that  the  per 
ception  is  only  accomplished  by  long  famil 
iarity  with  the  objects  of  intellect,  and  a  life 
according  to  the  things  themselves.  'Then  a 
light,  as  is  leaping  from  a  fire,  will  on  a  sud 
den  be  enkindled  in  the  soul,  and  will  then  it 
self  nourish  itself.'  " 3  And  again  he  quotes 
from  Plato,  this  time  from  the  Phcedrus,  to 
the  effect  that  "The  man  who  is  his  own  mas- 

1  Ibid.,  note  2. 

*Ibid.t  XVII.,  258. 

3  Complete  Works,  VIII.,  274.  Cf.  Bohn  translation  of 
Plato,  IV.,  524,  and  Select  Works  of  Plotinus,  Introduction, 
lix,  note. 


ART  215 

ter  knocks  in  vain  at  the  doors  of  poetry."  1 
It  is  quite  evident,  then,  that  in  his  defini 
tion  of  poetry,  of  its  materials,  and  of  its  in 
spiration,  Emerson  is  identifying  the  poet 
with  the  philosopher.  A  further  parallel  be 
tween  the  two  is  seen  in  Emerson's  conception 
of  true  poetic  rhymes. 

By  rhymes  Emerson  does  not  mean  the 
chime  of  word  with  word  but  rather  the  bal 
ance  of  antagonistic  elements  composing  the 
universe.  Impressed  with  it  in  his  view  of 
the  world,  he  makes  it  one  of  the  duties  of  the 
poet  to  attend  to  such  balancings  in  nature. 
Thus  he  has  the  pine  tree  in  JVoodnotes  sing 
of  these.2  Merlin,  a  name  for  his  ideal  poet, 
attends  to  recording  such  rhymes.3  Seyd,  an 
other  name  for  the  same  poet,  had  an  ear  at 
tuned  to  them.4  And  in  his  critical  discussion 
of  rhyme  Emerson  points  out  how  true  poetic 
rhyme  rises  to  this  as  its  highest  form.  "Of 
course  rhyme  soars  and  refines  with  the  growth 
of  mind.  The  boy  liked  the  drum,  the  people 
liked  an  overpowering  jewsharp  tune.  Later 
they  like  to  transfer  that  rhyme  to  life,  and  to 
detect  a  melody  as  prompt  and  perfect  in  their 

1  Complete  Works,  VIII.,  274. 
2/Wrf.,  IX.,  54. 
*Ibid.,  120. 
.,  276. 


2i6    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

daily  affairs.  Omen  and  coincidence  show 
the  rhythmical  structure  of  man;  hence  the 
taste  for  signs,  sortilege,  prophecy  and  ful 
filment,  anniversaries,  etc.  By  and  by,  when 
they  apprehend  real  rhymes,  namely,  the  cor 
respondence  of  parts  in  Nature — acid  and 
alkali,  body  and  mind,  man  and  maid,  char 
acter  and  history,  action  and  reaction — they 
do  not  longer  value  rattles  and  ding-dongs,  or 
barbaric  word-jingle.  Astronomy,  Botany, 
Chemistry,  Hydraulics  and  the  elemental 
forces  have  their  own  periods  and  returns, 
their  own  grand  strains  of  harmony  not  less 
exact,  up  to  the  primeval  apothegm  that  'there 
is  nothing  on  earth  which  is  not  in  the  heavens 
in  a  heavenly  form,  and  nothing  in  the 
heavens  which  is  not  on  the  earth  in  an  earthly 
form.'  They  furnish  the  poet  with  grander 
pairs  and  alternations,  and  will  require  an 
equal  expansion  in  his  metres."  1 

This  notion  is  the  Pythagorean  one  of  the 
dualism  underlying  nature  which  is  a  har 
mony  of  antagonistic  elements.  The  Plato- 
nists  incorporated  it  into  their  thought  and 
Emerson  uses  it  as  the  basic  principle  of  his 
doctrine  of  Compensation.  Its  source  in  the 
Platonists  is  also  indicated  in  Emerson's  quo- 

i  Ibid.,  VIII.,  4&-49- 


ART  217 

tation  of  "the  primeval  apothegm."  This  is 
an  adaptation  of  the  Smaragdine  Table 
"which  is  of  such  great  authority  with  the 
alchemists,"  says  Taylor,  "and  which  whether 
originally  written  or  not  by  Hermes  Tris- 
megistus,  is  doubtless  of  great  antiquity."  * 
Emerson's  quotation  is  not  an  exact  but  a  free 
rendering  of  its  opening  words:  "It  is  true 
without  a  lie,  certain,  and  most  true,  that 
what  is  beneath  is  like  that  which  is  above, 
and  what  is  above  is  like  that  which  is  be 
neath,  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing  the 
miracle  of  one  thing." 2  The  doctrine  of 
Platonism  which  this  expresses  is  given  by 
Plotinus  who  holds  that  all  things  pre-exist 
ideally  in  the  intelligible  world.  By  blend 
ing  the  notion  of  parallelism  with  that  of  an 
tagonism  Emerson  comes  to  view  the  relation 
of  the  world  of  sense  to  the  world  of  pure  in 
tellect  as  one  of  the  great  rhymes  to  which 
the  poet  will  attend. 

After  this  analysis  of  Emerson's  canons  of 
art  it  appears  that  in  this  realm  he  expected  to 
find  the  fruition  of  his  deepest  desires  as  a 
philosopher.  In  the  artist  he  sees  the  work- 

1  Quoted  in   Proclus,   On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  I.,   194, 
note. 


2i 8    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

ing  of  the  Universal  Mind  and  in  the  poet,  the 
supreme  artist,  he  finds  one  who  is  working 
with  the  materials  and  in  the  manner  of 
the  inquiring  spirit  of  a  philosopher.  "Of 
course,'7  he  fails  not  to  add,  "when  we  de 
scribe  man  as  poet,  and  credit  him  with  the 
triumphs  of  the  art,  we  speak  of  the  potential 
or  ideal  man — not  found  now  in  any  one  per 
son.  You  must  go  through  a  city  or  a  nation, 
and  find  one  faculty  here,  one  there,  to  build 
the  true  poet  withal.  Yet  all  men  know  the 
portrait  when  it  is  drawn,  and  it  is  part  of  re 
ligion  to  believe  its  possible  incarnation.  He 
is  the  healthy,  the  wise,  the  fundamental,  the 
manly  man,  seer  of  the  secret;  against  all  the 
appearance  he  sees  and  reports  the  truth, 
namely,  that  the  soul  generates  matter.  And 
poetry  is  the  only  verity — the  expression  of  a 
sound  mind  speaking  after  the  ideal,  and  not 
after  the  apparent."  l 

It  is  the  poet-philosopher  to  whom  Emer 
son  looks  for  the  long  promised  ideal  that 
Nature  has  been  striving  to  perfect.  As  ap 
proximations  to  that  ideal,  Emerson  alludes  to 
a  few  men  among  whom  Plato  and  Plotinus 
are  found.  Thus  Nature  in  her  song  says : 

i  Complete  Works,  VIII.,  26-27. 


ART  219 

"Twice  I  have  moulded  an  image, 

And  thrice  outstretched  my  hand, 
Made  one  of  day  and  one  of  night 
And  one  of  the  salt  sea-sand. 

"One  in  Judaean  manger, 

And  one  by  Avon  stream, 
One  1  over  against  the  mouths  of  Nile, 
And  one  2  in  the  Academe."  3 

But  Emerson's  ideal  is  manifestly  unfair  to 
art,  for  it  expects  art  to  do  more  than  it  ought. 
It  lacks  balance  and  sanity  of  judgment  and 
shows  an  incapacity  to  do  justice  to  the  sensu 
ous  as  well  as  the  spiritual  side  of  the  subject. 
No  better  indication  of  the  glaring  defects  of 
Emerson's  appreciative  criticism  can  be  found 
than  in  his  statement  that  "perhaps  Homer 
and  Milton  will  be  tin  pans  yet.  Better  not 
to  be  easily  pleased.  The  poet  should  rejoice 
if  he  has  taught  us  to  despise  his  song;  if  he 
has  so  moved  us  as  to  lift  us — to  open  the  eye  of 
the  intellect  to  see  farther  and  better."  4  This 
extreme  is  matched  by  his  high  estimate 
of  Proclus.  Speaking  of  his  intellectual 

1  Plotinus. 

2  Plato. 

3  Complete  Works,  IX.,  246. 

.,  VIIL,  68. 


220    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

strength,  Emerson  told  his  auditors  in  his 
Harvard  course  on  philosophy,  "What  lit 
erature  should  be,  he  is."  1  His  identification 
of  the  poet  with  the  philosopher  thus  ends  in 
the  banishment  of  the  poet.  In  this  respect 
Emerson  forsakes  Plotinus  and  goes  over 
to  Plato,  although  his  method  of  reasoning  is 
not  that  employed  by  Plato.  It  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  Emerson  did  not  check  in  himself  the 
strong  ascetic  tendency  fostered  by  reading  in 
the  philosophy  of  Plotinus;  which  tendency 
Plotinus  himself  had  resisted  in  his  valuation 
of  sensuous  beauty. 

1  Atlantic  Monthly,  LL,  827. 


CHAPTER  VI 

MYTHOLOGY 

PLATO  has  the  distinction  of  being  the 
poet-philosopher  among  the  thinkers  of 
the  world.  He  had  a  mind  that  laid  the 
foundations  for  pure  speculative  metaphysics 
and  at  the  same  time  he  was  gifted  with  an 
imagination  that  so  blended  itself  with  his 
most  abstruse  thinking  that  it  is  difficult  to 
separate  his  science  from  his  metaphors. 
And  these  in  the  extended  form  of  myths  or 
apologues  have  such  brilliancy  of  their  own 
that  they  make  the  reading  of  Plato  an  en 
joyment  such  as  only  poetry  in  its  highest 
flights  can  afford.  His  myth  of  the  charioteer 
and  the  two  horses  in  the  Phcedrus,  the  narra 
tive  of  Er  the  son  of  Armenius  in  the  Re 
public,  the  figure  of  the  cave  in  the  same  dia 
logue,  the  myths  concerning  the  origin  of  love 
in  the  Banquet — merely  to  mention  a  few  ex 
amples — have  imprinted  themselves  in  the  hu 
man  memory,  as  Emerson  observes,  like  the 
signs  of  the  zodiac.  Thus  a  study  of  the  in- 
221 


222    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

fluence  of  Platonism  must  attend  to  the  imagi 
native  side  of  Plato's  art  as  well  as  to  his  phil 
osophical  teaching.  This  is  especially  true 
of  a  study  of  Emerson's  Platonism,  for  his 
was  a  temperament  in  which  imagination  was 
highly  developed.  Feeding  naturally  on  the 
doctrines  of  Platonism,  he  was  influenced  by 
Plato's  manner  of  using  myths  or  fables  to  set 
forth  his  teachings. 

In  The  American  Scholar  Emerson  uses  a 
fable  to  convey  his  leading  conception — the 
nature  of  the  scholar.  "It  is  one  of  those 
fables,"  he  writes,  "which  out  of  an  unknown 
antiquity  convey  an  unlooked-for  wisdom, 
that  the  gods,  in  the  beginning,  divided  Man 
into  men,  that  he  might  be  more  helpful  to 
himself;  just  as  the  hand  was  divided  into  fin 
gers,  the  better  to  answer  its  end.  The  old 
fable  covers  a  doctrine  ever  new  and  sublime ; 
that  there  is  One  Man — present  to  all  partic 
ular  men  only  partially,  or  through  one 
faculty;  and  that  you  must  take  the  whole  so 
ciety  to  find  the  whole  man."  1 

The  source  of  this  fable  is  to  be  found  in 
Plato's  Banquet.  There  Aristophanes  tells  of 
the  nature  of  original  men:  "The  entire 
form  of  every  individual  of  the  human  race 

1  Complete  Works,  L,  82. 


MYTHOLOGY  223 

was  rounded,  having  the  back  and  sides  as  in 
a  circle.  It  had  four  hands,  and  legs  equal  in 
number  to  the  hands ;  and  two  faces  upon  the 
circular  neck,  alike  in  every  way,  and  one 
head  on  both  the  faces  placed  opposite,  and 
four  ears  .  .  .  and  from  these  it  is  easy 
to  conjecture  how  all  the  other  parts  were 
doubled."  1  Such  mortals  were  terrible  in 
force — the  narrative  proceeds — and  became  so 
threatening  in  their  attempts  to  attack  the  gods 
in  heaven  that  Jupiter  determined  to  halve 
them  in  order  to  weaken  their  strength.  Tay 
lor  in  a  note  to  his  translation  refers  to  the 
fable  as  one  "which  I  doubt  not  is  of  greater 
antiquity  than  Plato."  2 

With  this  fable  Emerson  blends  an  account 
of  the  use  of  brothers  which  Plutarch  gives  in 
his  essay,  Of  Brotherly  Love.  "And  Nature 
hath  given  us  very  near  examples  of  the  use  of 
brothers,  by  contriving  most  of  the  necessary 
parts  of  our  bodies  double,  as  it  were,  brothers 
and  twins — as  hands,  feet,  ears,  nostrils — 
thereby  telling  us  that  all  these  were  thus  dis 
tinguished  for  mutual  benefit  and  assistance, 
and  not  for  variance  and  discord.  And  when 
she  parted  the  very  hands  into  many  and  un- 

iBohn  translation,  III.,  508-509. 

2  The  Works  of  Plato,  III.,  475,  note  I. 


224    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

equal  fingers,  she  made  them  thereby  the 
most  curious  and  artificial  of  all  our  mem 
bers;  in  so  much  that  the  ancient  philosopher 
Anaxagoras  assigned  the  hands  for  the  reason 
of  all  human  knowledge  and  discretion.  But 
the  contrary  seems  the  truth.  For  it  is  not 
man's  having  hands  that  makes  him  the  wisest 
animal,  but  his  being  naturally  reasonable  and 
capable  of  art  was  the  reason  why  such  organs 
were  conferred  upon  him.  And  this  also  is 
most  manifest  to  every  one,  that  the  reason 
why  Nature  out  of  one  seed  and  source  formed 
two,  three,  and  more  brethren  was  not  for  dif 
ference  and  opposition,  but  that  their  being 
apart  might  render  them  the  more  capable  of 
assisting  one  another.  For  those  that  were 
treble-bodied  and  hundred-handed,  if  any 
such  there  were,  while  they  had  all  their  mem 
bers  joined  to  each  other  could  do  nothing 
without  them  or  apart."  1 

From  Plato,  then,  Emerson  got  the  idea  of 
the  gods  dividing  man  into  men;  from  Plu 
tarch  came  the  reason  for  the  division,  namely, 
to  make  man  more  helpful  to  himself;  and 
from  the  same  source  came  the  simile  of  the  di 
vision  of  the  hands  into  fingers.  Taylor's  note 

1  Plutarch,  Morals,  III.,  37. 


MYTHOLOGY  225 

formed  the  basis  for  the  assignment  of  the 
fable  to  an  unknown  antiquity.  Emerson's 
own  mind  fused  these  elements  into  a  version 
quite  his  own.  He  uses  it  to  point  the  moral 
he  is  inculcating;  that  in  the  various  occupa 
tions  in  which  in  the  divided  or  social  state 
men  are  engaged,  it  is  man  acting  now  in  one 
function,  now  in  another;  in  no  one  is  the  en 
tire  man  but  only  a  part  of  him.  Hence  he 
treats  the  scholar,  his  topic  in  hand,  as  man 
thinking.  It  is  an  idea  that  suggests  the  doc 
trine  of  Universal  Mind;  but  that  is  present 
entire  to  each  man,  whereas  the  One  Man  is 
present  to  all  particular  men  only  partially,  or 
through  one  faculty.  Emerson,  however,  ap 
plies  the  doctrine  in  a  way  that  shows  the 
theory  to  be  identical  with  his  doctrine  of 
Universal  Mind.  "It  is  remarkable,"  he  ob 
serves,  "the  character  of  the  pleasure  we  de 
rive  from  the  best  books.  They  impress  us 
with  the  conviction  that  one  nature  wrote  and 
the  same  reads  •..  .  .  But  for  the  evidence 
thence  afforded  to  the  philosophical  doctrine 
of  the  identity  of  all  minds,  we  should  suppose 
some  pre-established  harmony,  some  foresight 
of  souls  that  were  to  be,  and  some  preparation 
of  stores  for  their  future  wants,  like  the  fact 


226    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

observed  in  insects,  who  lay  up  food  before 
death  for  the  young  grub  they  shall  never 
see."  1 

It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  in  one  place 
Emerson  refers  this  fable  of  One  Man  to 
Seneca.  Speaking  of  the  coldness  of  Seneca's 
virtue,  he  qualifies  by  adding,  "Yet  what  noble 
words  we  owe  to  him:  (God  divided  man 
into  men,  that  they  might  help  each  other.'  "  2 
But  the  fable  does  not  appear  in  Seneca. 
Emerson  may  have  been  led  to  assign  it  to  him 
by  recollecting  the  caption  of  one  of  Seneca's 
Epistles  (XVII),  which  in  his  own  copy 
reads:  "The  Original  of  all  men  is  the 
same."  3  The  error  in  assigning  the  fable  to 
Seneca  is  not  alone  in  Emerson's  practice.  In 
his  Nature  he  assigns  to  Plato  the  sentence — 
"poetry  comes  nearer  to  vital  truth  than  his 
tory"  ;  but  it  belongs  to  Aristotle.4  He  makes 
Plotinus  say  "the  knowledge  of  the  senses  is 
truly  ludicrous";5  but  it  is  a  quotation  from 
Proclus's  treatise  On  Providence  and  Fate, 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  91-92. 

2  Ibid.,  X.,  312. 

8  Seneca's  Morals  by  way  of  Abstract,  by  Roger  L'Es- 
trange,  336. 

*  Complete  Works,  I.,  69.  Cf.  S.  H.  Butcher,  Aristotle's 
Theory  of  Poetry  and  Fine  Art,  35. 

5  Complete  Works,  X.,  281. 


MYTHOLOGY  227 

where  in  Emerson's  own  copy  the  passage  is 
marked  by  his  own  hand.1  He  also  refers  to 
Plato's  cave  in  the  Republic  as  the  "cave  of 
Trophonius,"  which  is  the  cave  mentioned  by 
Plutach.2  It  is  not  strange  then,  that  writing 
as  Emerson  did  late  in  life,  he  should  have  as 
signed  to  Seneca  what  he  had  previously  gath 
ered  from  Plutarch  and  Plato. 

Emerson  uses  the  fable  of  the  Sphinx  to  ex 
plain  one  of  Plato's  teachings.  "As  near  and 
proper  to  us,"  he  writes,  "is  also  that  old  fable 
of  the  Sphinx,  who  was  said  to  sit  on  the  road 
side  and  put  riddles  to  every  passenger.  If 
the  man  could  solve  the  riddle,  the  Sphinx 
was  slain.  What  is  our  life  but  an  endless 
flight  of  winged  facts  or  events?  In  splendid 
variety  these  changes  come,  all  putting  ques 
tions  to  the  human  spirit.  Those  men  who 
cannot  answer  by  a  superior  wisdom  these 
facts  or  questions  of  time,  serve  them.  Facts 
encumber  them,  tyrannize  over  them,  and 
make  the  men  of  routine  the  men  of  sense,  in 
whom  a  literal  obedience  to  facts  has  extin 
guished  every  spark  of  that  light  by  which 
man  is  truly  man.  But  if  the  man  is  true  to 

1  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  II.,  472. 

2  Complete    Works,   IV.,   83.    Cf.   Plutarch's  Lives,   trans 
lated  by  John  and  William  Langhorne,  II.,  293;  III.,  141. 


228    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

his  better  instincts  or  sentiments,  and  refuses 
the  dominion  of  facts,  as  one  that  comes  of  a 
higher  race ;  remains  fast  by  the  soul  and  sees 
the  principle,  then  the  facts  fall  aptly  and  sup 
ple  into  their  places;  they  know  their  master, 
and  the  meanest  of  them  glorifies  him."  1 

The  poetical  rendering  of  this  idea  is  found 
in  his  poem,  The  Sphinx.  There  Emerson 
explains  how  the  poet  solves  the  secret 
which  the  Sphinx  has  been  keeping  for  ages. 
This  secret  concerns  the  condition  of  man  who 
seems  to  stand  quite  apart  from  the  other 
members  of  creation.  These  share  the  eternal 
peace  of  the  universe: 

"But  man  crouches  and  blushes 

Absconds  and  conceals; 
He  creepeth  and  peepeth 

He  palters  and  steals; 
Infirm,  melancholy, 

Jealous  glancing  around, 
An  oaf,  an  accomplice, 

He  poisons  the  ground. " 

With  this  difference  in  mind  the  Sphinx  asks 
the  question  which  the  great  mother  Nature 
has  put: 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  32-33. 


MYTHOLOGY  229 

"  'Who  has  drugged  my  boy's  cup  ? 

Who  has  mixed  my  boy's  bread? 
Who  with  sadness  and  madness 
Has  turned  my  child's  head?'  ' 

The  poet  is  the  man  who  answers  the  ques 
tion.  Thus  Emerson  explains  how  the  poet 
says  to  the  Sphinx : 

"The  fiend  that  man  harries 

Is  love  of  the  Best; 
Yawns  the  pit  of  the  Dragon, 
Lit  by  rays  from  the  Blest. 

The  Lethe  of  Nature 

Can't  trance  him  again, 
Whose  soul  sees  the  perfect, 

Which  his  eyes  seek  in  vain. 

"To  vision  profounder 

Man's  spirit  must  dive ; 
His  aye-rolling  orb 

At  no  goal  will  arrive."  1 

This  eternal  search  on  the  part  of  man  for 
the  attainment  of  a  vision  ever  receding  is 
symbolical  of  the  truth  which  Plato  lays  down 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  22-23. 


23o    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

as  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  man. 
In  the  Phcedrus  he  says  that  "it  is  necessary 
that  a  man  should  understand  according  to  a 
generic  form,  as  it  is  called,  which  proceeding 
from  many  perceptions  is  by  reasoning  com 
bined  into  one."  1  Or  as  Emerson  renders 
the  passage,  "the  essence  or  peculiarity  of  man 
is  to  comprehend  a  whole;  or  that  which  in 
the  diversity  of  sensations  can  be  comprised 
under  a  rational  unity."  2  On  the  other  hand, 
according  to  Emerson,  who  still  quotes  from 
the  Phcedrus,  "the  soul  which  has  never  per 
ceived  the  truth,  cannot  pass  into  human 
form." 3 

The  suggestion  to  use  the  fable  of  the 
Sphinx  to  set  forth  this  teaching  of  Plato 
arose  in  Emerson's  mind  after  he  had  read 
Taylor's  note  explaining  the  meaning  of  the 
fable.  This  note  occurs  on  a  passage  in  the 
extract  from  Synesius  On  Providence,  ap 
pended  to  Taylor's  translation  of  the  Select 
Works  of  Plotinus.  Emerson  indicated  the 
passage  in  his  own  copy  by  inserting  at  the 
place  a  slip  of  paper  on  which  "Sphinx"  was 
inscribed  and  by  noting  the  passage  under  that 

1  Bohn  translation,  I.,  325. 

2  Complete  Works,  IV.,  63. 

*Ibid.    Cf.  Bohn  translation,  I.,  325- 


MYTHOLOGY  231 

heading  in  his  index.  "It  appears  to  me," 
the  note  reads,  "that  the  ancients,  by  the 
sphinx  designed  to  represent  to  us  the  nature 
of  the  phantasy  or  imagination.  In  order  to 
be  convinced  of  which,  it  is  necessary  to  ob 
serve  that  the  rational  soul,  or  the  true  man, 
consists  of  intellect,  dianoia  or  the  discursive 
energy  of  reason,  and  opinion;  but  the  fic 
titious  man,  or  the  irrational  soul,  commences 
from  the  phantasy,  under  which  desire  and 
anger  subsist.  Hence,  the  basis  of  the  ra 
tional  life  is  opinion,  but  the  summit  of  the 
irrational  life  is  phantasy.  .  .  .  But  the 
riddles  of  the  sphinx  are  images  of  the  obscure 
and  intricate  nature  of  the  phantasy.  He, 
therefore,  who  is  unable  to  solve  the  riddles  of 
the  sphinx,  i.  e.,  who  cannot  comprehend  the 
dark  and  perplexed  nature  of  the  phantasy, 
will  be  drawn  into  her  embraces  and  torn  in 
pieces;  viz.,  the  phantasy  in  such  a  one  will 
subject  to  its  power  the  rational  life,  cause  its 
indivisible  energies  to  become  divisible,  and 
thus  destroy  as  much  as  possible  its  very  es 


sence."  1 


With  the  idea  expressed  in  this  note  Emer 
son's  conception  of  man  as  a  thinking  being 
who  seeks  principles  beneath  facts  easily 

1  Select  Works,  539,  note  i. 


232    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

blended.  The  opposition  between  one  who 
attends  only  to  facts  and  one  who  grasps  prin 
ciples  passes  over  to  the  opposition  between 
phantasy  or  imagination,  the  highest  form  of 
the  perception  of  sensible  things,  and  intellect, 
which  is  a  faculty  of  the  soul  superior  to  sense 
perception.  With  this  new  pair  of  opposing 
elements  Emerson  identifies  the  Sphinx  and 
the  Poet  respectively.  Taylor  had  explained 
the  equivalence  of  phantasy  and  the  Sphinx 
and  Emerson  was  but  expressing  his  own  idea 
when  he  makes  the  poet  representative  of  in 
tellect. 

Such  an  explanation  does  not  strain  the 
poem.  In  his  prose  account  of  the  fable  Em 
erson,  holding  to  the  common  interpretation, 
says  that  the  Sphinx  sitting  by  the  roadside 
"puts  riddles  to  every  passenger";  but  in  the 
poem  the  Sphinx  herself  is  perplexed.  She  is 
pictured  drowsy  and  brooding  on.  the  world; 
her  first  words  are : 

"Who'll  tell  me  my  secret, 

The  ages  have  kept? 
I  awaited  the  seer 

While  they  slumbered  and  slept." 

And  the  specific  question  she  puts  is  that 
which  she  had  heard  from  Nature,  the  great 


MYTHOLOGY  233 

mother,  who  is  inquiring  concerning  the 
secret  of  man's  condition.  And  the  reason 
why  the  Sphinx  is  unable  to  answer  the  ques 
tion  can  be  inferred  from  the  Poet's  words  to 
her: 

"Dull  Sphinx,  Jove  keep  thy  five  wits; 

Thy  sight  is  growing  blear; 
Rue,  myrrh,  cummin  for  the  Sphinx 
Her  muddy  eyes  to  clear!" 

Such  a  characterization  points  to  phantasy  as 
the  function  of  the  soul  which  the  Sphinx  rep 
resents.  The  five  wits  all  feed  imagination, 
or  phantasy.  And  the  Sphinx  acknowledges 
as  much  to  the  poet. 

"The  old  Sphinx  bit  her  thick  lip- 
Said,  'Who  taught  thee  me  to  name?' 
I  am  thy  spirit,  yoke-fellow ; 
Of  thine  eye  I  am  eyebeam." 

That  is,  phantasy,  or  imagination,  is  the  yoke 
fellow  of  the  poet.  The  union  of  phantasy 
and  intellect  as  necessary  factors  in  the  soul's 
life  is  here  indicated.  It  thus  appears  that 
only  by  following  the  explanation  of  Taylor, 
that  is,  by  identifying  the  Sphinx  with  phan 
tasy,  or  imagination,  that  we  can  come  to 


234    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

understand  what  Emerson  is  aiming  at  in  his 
poem. 

This  explanation  also  gives  meaning  to  cer 
tain  details  which  otherwise  would  remain 
meaningless.  In  Emerson's  prose  version  of 
the  myth  we  read  that  if  one  was  able  to  solve 
the  secret,  the  Sphinx  was  slain.  Taylor's 
note,  however,  explains  this  as  follows:  "But 
he  who,  like  CEdipus,  is  able  to  solve  the  enig 
mas  of  the  sphinx,  or,  in  other  words,  to  com 
prehend  the  dark  essence  of  his  phantasy,  will, 
by  illuminating  its  obscurity  with  the  light  of 
intellect,  cause  it,  by  becoming  lucid  through 
out,  to  be  no  longer  what  it  was  before."  l 
And  again:  "Her  [phantasy's]  wings  are 
images  of  the  elevating  powers,  which  the 
phantasy  naturally  possesses;  for  it  is  re-ele 
vated  in  conjunction  with  the  returning  soul, 
to  the  region  everyway  resplendent  with 
divine  light." 2  In  other  words,  phantasy 
when  intellect  functions  properly  is  elevated 
and  shines  with  a  light  imparted  by  intellect. 
Or  as  Emerson  renders  the  change: 

"Uprose  the  merry  Sphinx 

And  crouched  no  more  in  stone; 

1  Select  Works,  540,  note  i. 


MYTHOLOGY  235 

She  melted  into  purple  cloud, 

She  silvered  in  the  moon; 
She  spired  into  a  yellow  flame; 

She  flowered  in  blossoms  red; 
She  flowed  into  a  foaming  wave; 

She  stood  Monadnoc's  head." 

That  is,  the  imagination  of  the  poet  when 
illuminated  by  intellect  uses  things  as  sym 
bols,  thus  translating  earthly  things  into 
higher  power. 

It  is  fitting,  then,  that  Emerson  should  give 
the  last  part  of  his  poem  over  to  Nature.  It 
is  she  that  had  originally  asked  the  question; 
the  Sphinx  got  it  from  her.  And  so  the  poem 
properly  ends  with  the  sanction  which  Na 
ture  gives  to  the  truth  that  the  Poet  has  spoken. 

"Through  a  thousand  voices 

Spoke  the  universal  dame; 
'Who  telleth  one  of  my  meanings 
Is  master  of  all  I  am/  ' 

The  sentiment  is  that  of  the  microcosm. 

Another  myth  which  Emerson  uses  to  point 
a  meaning  is  one  which  he  found  in  his 
Bohn  edition  of  Plato.  There  in  a  note  to  a 
passage  in  Sisyphus,  a  pseudo-Platonic  dia 
logue,  he  read  of  "an  ^Esopo-Socratic  fable," 


236    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

which  the  editor  says  was  "first  published  in 
a  latent  metrical  form  by  De  Furia,  from  a 
Vatican  MS.,  but  recently  in  a  more  complete 
state  from  an  Athos  MS.  by  Boissonade." 
The  English  version  of  it  runs : 

"To  the  gods  Apollo,  his  long  arrows  holding, 
Spoke  thus — Who  knows  the  arrow  to  let  fly, 
Than  the  far-darting  farther?     On  the  strife 
With  Phoebus  enter'd  Zeus,  his  weapons  handling. 
In  Ares'  helmet  Hermes  shook  the  lots, 
Which  Phoebus  first  obtaining,  with  his  hands 
The  bent  bow  pushing  from  him,  and  the  string 
Letting  go  sharply,  first  his  arrow  fix'd 
Within  the  distant  gardens  of  the  West. 
When  with  his  stride  did  Zeus  the  distance  clear, 
And  cried — Where  shall  I  shoot?  no  space  have  I. 
And  no  bow  drawing,  bow-man's  glory  gained."  l 

Emerson  uses  this  fable  to  illustrate  the 
superiority  of  character  over  talent.  "It  is  a 
fine  fable,"  he  writes,  "for  the  advantage  of 
character  over  talent,  the  Greek  legend  of  the 
strife  of  Jove  and  Phoebus.  Phoebus  chal 
lenged  the  gods,  and  said,  Who  will  outshoot 
the  far  darting  Apollo?'  Zeus  said,  'I  will.' 
Mars  shook  the  lots  in  his  helmet,  and  that 
of  Apollo  leaped  out  first.  Apollo  stretched 

1  The  Works  of  Plato,  Bohn  translation,  VI,  107,  note  3. 


MYTHOLOGY  237 

his  bow  and  shot  his  arrow  into  the  extreme 
west.  Then  Zeus  rose,  and  with  one  stride 
cleared  the  whole  distance,  and  said,  'Where 
shall  I  shoot?  there  is  no  space  left.'  So  the 
bowman's  prize  was  adjudged  to  him  who 
drew  no  bow."  1 

In  his  poem,  Uriel,  Emerson  uses  a  bit  of 
mythology  of  his  own  creation.  It  tells  of 
the  lapse  of  the  archangel  Uriel  from  his  high 
state  due  to  his  bold  philosophy  of  the  good. 
The  meaning  of  the  fable  is  best  understood 
when  viewed  in  its  relation  to  Emerson's 
Platonism. 

Emerson  held  to  the  essential  goodness  of 
all  things,  including  what  we  usually  call 
evil.  "I  own  I  am  gladdened  by  seeing  the 
predominance  of  the  saccharine  principle 
throughout  vegetable  nature,  and  not  less  by 
beholding  in  morals  that  unrestrained  inun 
dation  of  the  principle  of  good  into  every 
chink  and  hole  that  selfishness  has  left  open, 
yea  into  selfishness  and  sin  itself;  so  that  no 
evil  is  pure,  nor  hell  itself  without  its  extreme 
satisfactions."  2  "Thus  a  sublime  confidence 
is  fed  at  the  bottom  of  the  heart  that,  in  spite 
of  appearances,  in  spite  of  malignity  and 

*  Complete  Works,  VII.,  184. 
tf.,  II.,  3I7-3I& 


238    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

blind  self-interest  living  for  the  moment,  an 
eternal,  beneficent  necessity  is  always  bring 
ing  things  right;  and  though  we  should  fold 
our  arms — which  we  cannot  do,  for  our  duty 
requires  us  to  be  the  very  hands  of  this  guid 
ing  sentiment,  and  work  in  the  present  mo 
ment — the  evils  we  suffer  will  at  last  end 
themselves  through  the  incessant  opposition  of 
Nature  to  everything  hurtful."  1 

This  is  a  doctrine  which  Emerson  found 
in  Platonism.  "Evil  according  to  old  phi 
losophers,"  he  tells  us,  "is  good  in  the  mak 
ing."  2  It  is  to  the  Platonists  that  he  refers. 
"Every  part,  indeed,  of  this  mundane  fabric 
and  drama,"  says  Proclus,  "has  for  its  end 
good;  since  no  part  of  it  is  left  inordinate; 
but  it  is  so  woven  with  other  parts,  as  to  con 
tribute  to  the  well  being  of  the  universe."  3 
And  in  his  own  copy  of  the  Select  Works  of 
Plotinus  he  has  indexed  under  "Good  of 
Evil"  a  passage  from  Plato  quoted  in  a  note 
by  Taylor.  "Conformably  to  this,  it  is  di 
vinely  said  by  Plato  in  the  Republic:  'What 
ever  comes  from  the  Gods  to  the  man  who  is 
beloved  by  the  Gods,  will  all  be  the  best  possi- 

1  Ibid.,  X.,  188-189. 

2  Ibid.,  IV.,  138. 

3  On  Providence  and  Fate,  in  On  the  Theology  of  Plato, 
II.,  466. 


MYTHOLOGY  239 

ble,  unless  he  has  some  necessary  ill  from 
former  miscarriage.  Hence,  if  the  just  man 
happens  to  be  in  poverty  or  disease,  or  in  any 
other  of  those  seeming  evils,  these  things  issue 
to  him  in  something  good  either  alive  or 
dead.' " 1 

It  is  this  doctrine  that  the  archangel  Uriel 
refers  to  when  he  expressed  the  sentiment  that 
caused  his  lapse. 

"  'Line  in  nature  is  not  found; 
Unit  and  universe  are  round; 
In  vain  produced,  all  rays  return; 
Evil  will  bless,  and  ice  will  burn.'  ' 

And  though  obscured  in  his  fall,  Uriel's  voice 
of  scorn  was  still  heard  shrilling,  "Out  of  the 
good  of  evil  born" — a  sentiment  that  filled 
the  old  gods  with  fear. 

But  Emerson  owes  to  Plotinus  not  only  the 
central  idea  of  the  poem,  but  the  manner  of 
its  expression.  Thus,  in  explaining  himself, 
Uriel  uses  symbolical  language  of  line  and 
circle.  Such  symbolical  use  of  geometrical 
terms  is  constant  in  Plato  and  the  Platonists. 
"For  a  right  line,"  Proclus  explains,  "is  im 
perfect,  as  always  capable  of  being  extended; 
but  a  circle  and  a  sphere  are  most  perfect,  as 

1  Select  Works,  361,  note  I. 


240    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

not  receiving  increase,  and  as  making  the  end 
of  their  motion  the  beginning."  1  Uriel  thus, 
in  giving  his  sentiment  "against  the  being  of  a 
line,"  was  talking  the  language  of  Platonism. 
In  fabricating  the  fable,  too,  Emerson 
draws  on  the  notions  of  Platonism  for  certain 
details.  Of  the  time  of  Uriel's  lapse  Emer 
son  writes : 

"It  fell  in  the  ancient  periods 

Which  the  brooding  soul  surveys, 
Or  ever  the  wild  Time  coined  itself 
Into  calendar  months  and  days." 

This  conception  of  time  is  that  of  Plato  in 
the  Timceus.  Time  is  there  defined  as  an 
image  of  eternity  and  was  created  by  the 
Demiurgus  along  with  the  universe.  "But 
besides  this,"  Plato  adds,  "he  contrived  the 
days  and  nights,  months  and  years,  which  had 
no  existence  prior  to  the  universe,  but  rose 
into  being  contemporaneously  with  its  forma 
tion."  2  The  time  of  Uriel's  lapse  was  in  that 
eternal  period  before  time  was. 

Again,  the  nature  of  the  punishment  that 
Uriel  suffers  is  that  frequently  referred  to  by 
Plato  and  the  Platonists.  In  Plato  the  trans- 

1  Commentaries  on  the  Timceus  of  Plato,  II.,  445. 
2Bohn  translation,  II.,  341. 


MYTHOLOGY  241 

migration  of  the  soul  is  more  than  once  indi 
cated  ;  *  and  in  Plotinus  the  reasons  for  the 
lapse  of  the  soul  into  the  world  of  matter  are 
given.  "The  assertions,  therefore/'  Plotinus 
says,  "are  by  no  means  discordant  with  each 
other,  which  declare  that  souls  are  sown  in 
generation,  and  that  they  descend  for  the  sake 
of  causing  the  perfection  of  the  universe; 
likewise  that  they  are  condemned  to  suffer 
punishment,  and  are  confined  in  a  cave." 2 
Adopting  the  hint  of  the  lapse  of  the  soul  into 
the  realms  of  generation  and  its  transmigra 
tion  therein,  Emerson  says  of  Uriel: 

UA  sad  self-knowledge,  withering,  fell 
On  the  beauty  of  Uriel; 
In  heaven  once  eminent,  the  god 
Withdrew,  that  hour,  into  his  cloud; 
Whether  doomed  to  long  gyration 
In  the  sea  of  generation, 
Or  by  knowledge  grown  too  bright 
To  hit  the  nerve  of  feebler  sight."  3 

In  closing  his  essay,  Manners,  Emerson  ap 
pears  a  second  time  as  an  inventor  of  a  fable 
out  of  suggestions  he  found  in  his  Platonic 

iBohn  translation,  I.,  325;  II.,  347. 

2  Five  Books,  270-271.    Cf.  Complete  Works,  IX.,  410. 

3  Complete  Works,  IX.,  114. 


242    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

sources.  Speaking  of  the  character  of  human 
society,  he  observes :  "Too  good  for  banning, 
and  too  bad  for  blessing,  it  reminds  us  of  a 
tradition  of  the  pagan  mythology,  in  any  at 
tempt  to  settle  its  character.  (I  overheard 
Jove,  one  day,'  said  Silenus,  'talking  of  de 
stroying  the  earth ;  he  said  it  had  failed ;  they 
were  all  rogues  and  vixens,  who  went  from 
bad  to  worse,  as  fast  as  the  days  succeeded 
each  other.  Minerva  said  she  hoped  not; 
they  were  only  ridiculous  little  creatures,  with 
this  odd  circumstance,  that  they  had  a  blur, 
or  indeterminate  aspect,  seen  far  or  seen  near; 
if  you  called  them  bad,  they  would  appear  so; 
if  you  called  them  good,  they  would  appear 
so;  and  there  was  no  one  person  or  action 
among  them  which  would  not  puzzle  her  owl, 
much  more  all  Olympus,  to  know  whether  it 
was  fundamentally  bad  or  good.'  "  1 

This  fable  appears  to  be  a  presentation  in 
dialogue  form  of  an  idea  which  Emerson 
noted  in  his  Plutarch.  There,  in  his  essay  Of 
Isis  and  Osiris,  in  a  passage  marked  by  Em 
erson's  own  hand,  can  be  read:  "For  the 
harmony  of  the  world  is  (according  to  Hera- 
clitus)  like  that  of  a  bow  or  a  harp,  alternately 

d.,  in,  155. 


MYTHOLOGY  243 

tightened  and  relaxed;  and  according  to 
Euripides, 

Nor  good  nor  bad  here's  to  be  found  apart;     I 
But  both  immixed  in  one,  for  greater  art. 

And,  therefore,  this  most  ancient  opinion  hath 
been  handed  down  from  the  theologists  and 
law-givers  to  the  poets  and  philosophers,  it 
having  an  original  fathered  upon  none,  but 
having  gained  a  persuasion  both  strong  and 
indelible,  and  being  everywhere  professed 
and  received  by  barbarians  as  well  as  Grecians 
— and  that  not  only  in  vulgar  discourses  and 
public  fame,  but  also  in  their  secret  mysteries 
and  open  sacrifices — that  the  world  is  neither 
hurried  about  by  wild  chance  without  intelli 
gence,  discourse  and  direction,  nor  yet  that 
there  is  but  one  reason,  which  as  it  were  with 
a  rudder  or  with  gentle  and  easy  reins  directs 
it  and  holds  it  in;  but  that,  on  the  contrary, 
there  are  in  it  several  differing  things,  and 
those  made  up  of  bad  as  well  as  good;  or 
rather  (to  speak  more  plainly)  that  Nature 
produces  nothing  here  but  what  is  mixed  and 
tempered."  1  By  appropriating  this  view  of 
the  world  and  assigning  characters  Emerson 

1  Morals,  IV.,  105-106. 


244    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

was  able  to  work  out  a  fable  in  which  he  sums 
up  his  teaching  on  the  matter  in  hand. 

In  another  instance  Emerson  expresses  a 
familiar  idea  of  Platonism  through  a  fable 
which  he  says  "seems  somehow  to  have 
been  dropped  from  the  current  mythologies."  1 

"Saturn  grew  weary  of  sitting  alone,  or 
with  none  but  the  great  Uranus  or  Heaven  be 
holding  him,  and  he  created  an  oyster.  Then 
he  would  act  again,  but  he  made  nothing 
more,  but  went  on  creating  the  race  of  oysters. 
Then  Uranus  cried,  'A  new  work,  O  Saturn  1 
the  old  is  not  good  again.' 

"Saturn  replied,  'I  fear.  There  is  not  only 
the  alternative  of  making  and  not  making,  but 
also  of  unmaking.  Seest  thou  the  great  sea, 
how  it  ebbs  and  flows?  so  it  is  with  me;  my 
power  ebbs;  and  if  I  put  forth  my  hands,  I 
shall  not  do,  but  undo.  Therefore  I  do  what 
I  have  done;  I  hold  what  I  have  got;  and  so 
I  resist  Night  and  Chaos.' 

"  *O  Saturn,'  replied  Uranus,  'thou  canst 
not  hold  thine  own  but  by  making  more. 
Thy  oysters  are  barnacles  and  cockles,  and 
with  the  next  flowing  of  the  tide  they  will  be 
pebbles  and  sea  foam.' 

"  *I  see,'  rejoins  Saturn,  'thou  art  in  league 

1  Complete  Works,  IM  296. 


MYTHOLOGY  24,5 

with  Night,  thou  art  become  an  evil  eye;  thou 
spakest  from  love;  now  thy  words  smite  me 
with  hatred.  I  appeal  to  Fate,  must  there  not 
be  rest?' — 'I  appeal  to  Fate,  also/  said 
Uranus,  'must  there  not  be  motion?' — But 
Saturn  was  silent,  and  went  on  making  oysters 
for  a  thousand  years. 

"After  that,  the  word  of  Uranus  came  into 
his  mind  like  a  ray  of  the  sun,  and  he  made 
Jupiter;  and  then  he  feared  again;  and  nature 
froze,  the  things  that  were  made  went  back 
ward,  and  to  save  the  world,  Jupiter  slew  his 
father  Saturn."  1 

The  fable  sets  forth  the  opposition  between 
the  principle  of  motion  and  the  principle  of 
rest.  Emerson  identifies  the  one  with  Inno 
vation  and  the  other  with  Conservatism. 
They  are  the  two  principles  in  accordance 
with  which  Plato  builds  up  his  conception  of 
the  world  of  matter  and  of  the  world  of  pure 
ideas;  and  they  were  inherited  from  the 
Pythagorean  speculation  on  the  universe  as  a 
harmony  of  mutually  antagonistic  elements. 
It  is  a  familiar  idea  in  Emerson  and  here  he 
uses  Plato's  manner  of  mythologizing  in  order 
to  express  the  truth. 

At  the  close  of  his  essay  on  Immortality 

id.,  I.,  296-297. 


246     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Emerson  recounts  a  fable  which  he  had  prob 
ably  met  with  in  one  of  his  Hindoo  books.1  It 
deals  with  the  reluctance  of  Yama,  the  lord 
of  Death,  to  fulfill  his  promise  to  Nachiketas, 
the  son  of  Gautama,  which  was  to  grant  him 
three  boons  of  his  own  choice.  Two  he 
willingly  granted,  but  the  third,  which  was  a 
request  to  unfold  the  history  of  the  soul  after 
death,  Yama  at  first  declines  to  answer;  but 
Nachiketas  growing  so  importunate,  he  speaks 
to  him  of  the  eternal  nature  of  the  soul.  This 
Indian  fable  is  used  by  Emerson  much  in  the 
manner  of  Plato  in  his  Phcedo,  where,  after 
the  philosophic  discussion  on  immortality,  one 
of  the  characters  tells  a  fable  of  the  other 
world.2 

Associated  with  these  fables  of  Emerson's 
are  his  utterances  which  he  assigns  to  "his 
Orphic  poet."  This  is  no  other  person  than 
Emerson  himself,  who  is  working  out  a  sug 
gestion  he  found  in  Proclus.  "He  who 
desires  to  signify  divine  concerns  through 
symbols  in  Orphic,"  says  Proclus,  "and,  in 
short,  accords  with  those  who  write  fables 
concerning  the  gods."  3  He  uses  this  sugges- 

i  Ibid.,  VIII.,  349-352. 

2Bohn  translation,  L,   117,  et  sq. 

3  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  L,  12. 


MYTHOLOGY  247 

tion  in  his  Nature  and  also  in  his  essay,  The 
Poet,  although  in  this  latter  reference  the  poet 
is  not  styled  Orphic. 

In  Nature  this  Orphic  poet  sings  some  tra 
ditions  of  man  and  nature.  Among  his  utter 
ances  are  these  words:  aMan  is  the  dwarf 
of  himself.  Once  he  was  permeated  and  dis 
solved  by  spirit.  He  filled  nature  with  his 
overflowing  currents.  Out  from  him  sprang 
the  sun  and  moon;  from  man  the  sun,  from 
woman  the  moon.  The  laws  of  his  mind,  the 
periods  of  his  actions  externized  themselves 
into  day  and  night,  into  year  and  the  seasons. 
But,  having  made  for  himself  this  huge  shell, 
his  waters  retired;  he  no  longer  fills  the  veins 
and  veinlets ;  he  is  shrunk  to  a  drop.  He  sees 
that  the  structure  still  fits  him,  but  fits  him 
colossally.  Say,  rather,  once  it  fitted  him, 
now  it  corresponds  to  him  from  far  and  on 
high.  He  adores  timidly  his  own  work. 
Now  is  man  the  follower  of  the  sun  and 
woman  the  follower  of  the  moon.  Yet  some 
times  he  starts  in  his  slumber,  and  wonders  at 
himself  and  his  house,  and  muses  strangely 
at  the  resemblance  betwixt  him  and  it.  He 
perceives  that  if  his  law  is  still  paramount,  if 
still  he  have  elemental  power,  if  his  word  is 
sterling  yet  in  nature,  it  is  not  conscious 


248    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

power,  it  is  not  inferior,  but  superior  to  his 
will.     It  is  instinct."  * 

The  underlying  idea  is  the  familiar  one  of 
the  mysterious  relation  of  man  to  nature.  In 
explaining  it  Emerson  had  used  the  doctrines 
of  Platonism,  as  has  already  been  indicated. 
But  in  this  instance  he  has  seized  upon  certain 
suggestions  found  in  the  Platonists  and  at 
tempted  to  work  them  into  a  semblance  of  a 
tradition  or  fable. 

lamblichus  gave  him  the  idea  that  man  is 
but  a  dwarf  of  himself.  In  his  Mysteries  of 
the  Egyptians,  Chaldeans,  and  Assyrians  lam 
blichus  had  written:  "I  say,  therefore,  that 
the  more  divine  intelligible  man,  who  was 
formerly  united  to  the  Gods  by  the  vision  of 
them,  afterwards  entered  into  another  soul, 
which  is  coadapted  to  the  human  form,  and 
through  this  became  fettered  with  the  bonds 
of  necessity  and  fate."  2 

In  Proclus  Emerson  found  the  suggestion 
that  out  of  man  sprang  the  sun  and  moon. 
Speaking  of  the  goddess  Athena,  Proclus  says : 
"But  the  Egyptians  relate,  that  in  the  adytum 
of  the  Goddess  [Athena]  there  was  this  in 
scription  :  'I  am  the  things  that  are,  that  will 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  71-72. 

2  P.  332. 


MYTHOLOGY  249 

be,  and  that  have  been.  No  one  has  ever  laid 
open  the  garment  by  which  I  am  concealed. 
The  fruit  which  I  brought  forth  was  the 


sun.'  " 


Such  a  conception  is  in  keeping  with  the 
idea  that  the  Platonists  held:  that  visible 
things  are  effluxious  from  the  gods.  Plu 
tarch's  essay,  Of  Isis  and  Osiris,  contains  many 
instances  of  such  an  interpretation.  Emerson 
himself,  in  another  place,  quotes  Proclus  to 
the  effect  that  "gold  and  silver  grow7  in  the 
earth  from  the  celestial  gods  —  an  effluxion 
from  them."  2  It  was  natural,  then,  for  him 
to  carry  over  the  idea  to  man  in  his  former 
union  with  the  Divine.  Nature  thus  became 
an  effluxion  from  man's  spirit. 

The  idea  that  man  is  now  a  follower  of  the 
sun  is,  perhaps,  a  recollection  of  Plutarch's 
remark:  "We  appear  to  be  passionately  in 
love  with  the  sun."  3  And  the  sun,  he  says, 
interferes  with  spiritual  vision  "by  sense  with 
drawing  the  rational  intellect  from  that  which 
is  to  that  which  appears."  4 

The  suggestion  that  woman  is  a  follower  of 
the  moon  may  have  arisen  in  Emerson's  mind 

1  Commentaries  on  the  Timaus  of  Plato,  L,  82. 

2  Complete  Works,  X.,  272. 
*  Morals,  IV.,  294. 
*Ibid.,  III.,  82. 


250    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

as  a  natural  parallel.  Perhaps,  however, 
Plutarch's  comparison  of  Venus  to  the  moon 
in  his  dialogue,  Of  Love,  may  have  been  in 
Emerson's  thought,  especially  as  it  occurs  in  a 
passage  where  the  god  of  love  is  compared 
to  the  Sun.1 

If  this  reasoning  be  true,  and  it  is  not  a 
strained  analysis,  Emerson's  utterances  as 
Orphic  poet  would  be  an  instance  of  the  truth 
of  the  remark  he  makes  on  Plutarch  —  "A 
poet  might  rhyme  all  day  with  hints  drawn 
from  Plutarch,  page  on  page."  2 

It  thus  becomes  quite  evident  that  teaching 
by  myth,  fable  or  apologue  is  a  favorite  way 
of  Emerson's.  Emerson's  myths  are,  of 
course,  much  inferior  to  Plato's  in  depth  and 
in  brilliancy,  but  they  testify  to  a  conscious 
effort  on  Emerson's  part  to  follow  at  a  dis 
tance  in  the  distinctly  Platonic  manner  of 
blending  philosophy  and  poetry. 

As  was  seen  in  the  explanation  of  the 
Sphinx,  Emerson  is  careful  to  rationalize  the 
myths  that  interested  him.  It  was  a  practice 
which  Plato  himself  had  used  in  his  searching 
criticism  of  the  old  Greek  myths.  In  the 
later  Platonists  myths  are  frequently  ration- 


rf.,  IV.,  293- 
2  Complete  Works,  X.,  301. 


MYTHOLOGY  251 

alized.  In  his  copy  of  On  the  Theology  of 
Plato  Emerson  had  indexed  a  passage, 
"Mythology,"  which  taught  that  the  "mytho 
logical  mode  which  indicates  divine  concerns 
through  conjectures  is  ancient,  concealing 
truth  under  a  multitude  of  veils,  and  pro 
ceeding  in  a  manner  similar  to  nature,  which 
extends  sensible  figments  of  intelligibles,  ma 
terial,  of  immaterial,  partible,  of  impartible 
natures,  and  images,  and  things  which  have  a 
false  being,  of  things  perfectly  true."  l  Into 
this  habit  Emerson  himself  falls. 

The  myth  of  Pan  held  Emerson's  attention. 
He  gives  it  two  interpretations.  "The  my 
thology,"  he  observes,  "cleaves  close  to  Na 
ture;  and  what  else  was  it  they  represented  in 
Pan,  god  of  shepherds,  who  was  not  yet  com 
pletely  finished  in  godlike  form,  blocked 
rather,  and  wanting  the  extremities;  had  em 
blematic  horns  and  feet?  Pan,  that  is,  All. 
His  habit  was  to  dwell  in  mountains,  lying  on 
the  ground,  tooting  like  a  cricket  in  the  sun, 
refusing  to  speak,  clinging  to  his  behemoth 
ways.  He  could  intoxicate  by  the  strain  of 
his  shepherd's  pipe — silent  yet  to  most,  for  his 
pipes  make  the  music  of  the  spheres,  which, 
because  it  sounds  eternally,  is  not  heard  at  all 

1  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  L,  13. 


252    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

by  the  dull,  but  only  by  the  mind.  He  wears 
a  coat  of  leopard  spots  or  stars.  He  could 
terrify  by  earth-born  fears  called  panics 
Yet  was  he  in  the  secret  of  Nature  and  could 
look  both  before  and  after.  He  was  only 
seen  under  disguises,  and  was  not  represented 
by  any  outward  image ;  a  terror  sometimes,  at 
others  a  placid  omnipotence."  1 

This  account  seems  to  be  largely  built  out 
of  materials  Emerson  found  in  Cudworth. 
In  a  passage,  which  Emerson  had  indexed, 
"Pan,"  Cudworth  gives  a  quotation  from  a 
Platonist  named  Phornutus,  who  thus  de 
scribes  Pan:  "  'The  lower  parts  of  Pan 
(saith  he)  were  rough  and  goatish,  because  of 
the  asperity  of  the  earth;  but  his  upper  parts 
of  a  human  form,  because  the  ether  being  ra 
tional  and  intellectual,  is  the  Hegemonic  of 
the  world';  adding  hereunto,  'that  Pan  was 
feigned  ...  to  be  clothed  with  the  skin 
of  a  libbard,  because  of  the  bespangled 
heavens,  and  the  beautiful  variety  of  things  in 
the  world;  to  live  in  a  desert,  because  of  the 
singularity  of  the  world;  and,  lastly,  to  be  a 
good  demon  by  reason  of  the  TPO«TTW«  afoot  \6yo^ 
that  supreme  mind,  reason,  and  understand- 

1  Complete  Works,  XII.,  35-36. 


MYTHOLOGY  253 

ing,  that  governs  all  in  it.'  "  x  In  a  second 
passage  Cudworth  adds:  "First  of  all,  Pan, 
as  the  very  word  plainly  implies  him  to  be 
a  universal  Numen,  and  as  he  was  supposed 
to  be  the  Harmostes  of  the  whole  world,  or 
to  play  upon  the  world  as  a  musical  instru 
ment,  according  to  that  of  Orpheus  (or 
Onomacritus)  : 

'ApfJLOViaV   KOVfJLOLO    Kp€Kd)V 


So  have  we  before  showed  that  by  him  the 
Arcadians  and  Greeks  meant,  not  the  cor 
poreal  world  inanimate,  nor  yet  as  endued 
with  a  senseless  nature  only,  but  as  proceeding 
from  an  intellectual  principle  or  divine  spirit, 
which  framed  it  harmoniously;  and  as  being 
still  kept  in  tune,  acted  and  governed  by  the 
same."  * 

And  again  Cudworth  says:  "The  an 
cient  mythologists  represented  the  nature  of 
the  universe  by  Pan  playing  upon  a  pipe 
or  harp  ...  ;  as  if  nature  did,  by  a  silent 
melody,  make  all  the  parts  of  the  universe 
everywhere  dance  in  measure  and  proportion, 
itself  being  as  it  were  in  the  meantime  de- 

1  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  L,  583. 
uf.,  II.,  208. 


254    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

lighted  and  ravished  with  the  re-echoing  of  its 
own  harmony."  1 

In  interpreting  this  myth,  however,  Emer 
son  does  not  follow  Cudworth.  Cudworth 
identifies  Pan  with  God;  but  Emerson  sees  in 
the  myth  either  a  representation  of  instinct  or 
of  man.  "Such  homage,"  he  says  of  it,  "did 
the  Greek — delighting  in  accurate  form,  not 
fond  of  the  extravagant  and  unbounded — 
pay  to  the  inscrutable  force  we  call  Instinct, 
or  Nature  when  it  first  becomes  intelligent."  2 
And  in  another  place  he  holds:  "The  great 
Pan  of  old,  who  was  clothed  in  a  leopard  skin 
to  signify  the  beautiful  variety  of  things,  and 
the  firmament,  his  coat  of  stars — was  but  the 
representative  of  thee,  O  rich  and  various 
Man!  thou  palace  of  sight  and  sound,  carry 
ing  in  thy  senses  the  morning  and  the  night 
and  the  unfathomable  galaxy;  in  thy  brain, 
the  geometry  of  the  City  of  God;  in  thy  heart, 
the  bower  of  love  and  the  realms  of  right  and 
wrong."  3 

In  his  poetry,  however,  Emerson  adopts 
the  notion  of  Cudworth  that  Pan  represented 
God  who  is  infused  into  all  things.  Hence, 

1  Ibid.,  I.,  242. 

2  Complete  Works,  XII.,  36. 
slbid.,  I.,  205-206. 


XA 

f  Of   THE 

[  UNIVERSITY   ) 


MYTHOLOGY  255 

in  the  poem,  Pan,  he  uses  the  idea  to  set  forth 
his  favorite  doctrine  of  the  Over-Soul. 

"O  what  are  heroes,  prophets,  men, 

But  pipes  through  which  the  breath  of  Pan  doth 

blow 

A  momentary  music.     Being's  tide 
Swells  hitherward,  and  myriads  of  forms 
Live,  robed  with  beauty,  painted  by  the  sun; 
Their  dust,  pervaded  by  the  nerves  of  God, 
Throbs  with  an  overmastering  energy 
Knowing  and  doing.     Ebbs  the  tide,  they  lie 
White  hollow  shells  upon  the  desert  shore, 
But  not  the  less  the  eternal  wave  rolls  on 
To  animate  new  millions,  and  exhale 
Races  and  planets,  its  enchanted  foam."  1 

With  Cudworth,  too,  Emerson  agrees  in  the 
use  of  the  myth  of  Proteus.  In  Plato  there 
are  several  references  to  that  figure  as  an 
elusive  being,  constantly  changing  form;  but 
it  is  Cudworth  who  applies  the  idea  to  the 
ever-changing  flux  in  the  world  of  matter. 
In  a  long  passage  on  the  eternal  change  in 
nature,  which  Emerson  has  marked  in  his  own 
copy,  Cudworth  says  that  the  "matter  of  the 
universe  is  always  substantially  the  same,  and 
neither  more  nor  less,  but  only  Proteanly 

•id.,  IX.,  360, 


256    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

transformed  into  different  shapes." *  And, 
in  like  manner,  Emerson  observes:  "The 
philosophical  perception  of  identity  through 
endless  mutations  of  form  makes  him  know 
the  Proteus.  What  else  am  I  who  laughed 
or  wept  yesterday,  who  slept  last  night  like  a 
corpse,  and  this  morning  stood  and  ran? 
And  what  see  I  on  any  side  but  the  transmi 
grations  of  Proteus?"2 

Emerson  also  adopts  the  view  of  the  Pla- 
tonists  who  see  hidden  meanings  in  the  defects 
which  are  associated  with  certain  mythologi 
cal  characters.  "In  the  old  mythology,  my- 
thologists  observe,"  says  Emerson,  "defects 
are  ascribed  to  divine  natures,  as  lameness  to 
Vulcan,  blindness  to  Cupid,  and  the  like — to 
signify  exuberances."  3  In  keeping  with  this 
idea  of  Cupid  is  Emerson's  conception  of  the 
piercing  quality  of  love's  vision,  though  love 
is  usually  represented  as  a  blind  god.  The 
poem,  Cupido,  turns  on  this  thought: 

"The  solid,  solid  universe 
Is  pervious  to  Love; 
With  bandaged  eyes  he  never  errs, 


1  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  L,  68. 

2  Complete  Works,  II.,  31-32. 
*lbid.,  III.,  18.    Cf.  IX.,  72. 


MYTHOLOGY  257 

Around,  below,  above. 

His  blinding  light 

He  flingeth  white 

On  God's  and  Satan's  brood, 

And  reconciles 

By  mystic  wiles 

The  evil  and  the  good."  1 

Emerson's  authority  for  this  manner  of  in 
terpreting  the  defects  of  divine  natures  is 
Proclus.  In  his  Commentaries  on  the  Tim- 
ceus  of  Plato  is  written:  "It  must  be  care 
fully  observed,  that  defects  when  ascribed  to 
divine  natures  adumbrate  transcendencies; 
just  as  those  whose  eyes  are  filled  with  solar 
light,  are  said  to  be  incapable  of  perceiving 
mundane  objects;  for  this  incapacity  is  noth 
ing  more  than  transcendency  of  vision.  In 
like  manner,  the  lameness  of  Vulcan  sym 
bolically  indicated  his  exemption  from  any 
defective  progression."  2  Emerson's  explana 
tion  of  the  blindness  of  Cupid  is  an  example 
contributed  by  himself. 

In  Plutarch  Emerson  found  a  bit  of 
mythology  which  he  uses  in  characteristic 
fashion.  Plutarch  says:  "The  sun  never 
transgresses  its  limited  measures,  as  Hera- 

1  Ibid.,  IX.,  257. 
2 1.,  120,  note  i. 


258    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

clitus  says:  if  it  did  do  so,  the  Furies,  which 
are  the  attendants  of  Justice,  would  find  it  out 
and  punish  it."  *  This  piece  of  mythology 
Emerson  identifies  with  the  doctrine  of  Nem 
esis,  which  he  holds  underlies  the  concep 
tion  of  compensation.  "This  is  that  ancient 
doctrine  of  Nemesis,"  he  tells  us,  "who  keeps 
watch  in  the  universe  and  lets  no  offence  go 
unchastised.  The  Furies,  they  said,  are  at 
tendants  on  justice,  and  if  the  sun  in  heaven 
should  transgress  his  path  they  would  punish 
him."  2 

But  no  phase  of  ancient  mythology  did 
Emerson  more  carefully  explain  in  terms  of 
human  experience  than  the  belief  in  Daemons, 
as  they  are  treated  in  the  writings  of  Plato  and 
the  Platonists.  He  used  details  concerning 
them  in  elaborating  his  conception  in 
Daemonic  Love;  but  what  is  more  he  is  care 
ful  to  state  the  modern  equivalent  of  the 
Daemon.  Thus,  in  a  review  of  certain  phases 
of  demonology,  he  shows  little  regard  for  the 
significance  of  dreams  or  omens.  "But  the 
faith  in  peculiar  and  alien  power,"  he  adds, 
"takes  another  form  in  the  modern  mind, 
much  more  resembling  the  ancient  doctrine  of 

*  Morals,  III.,  26. 

2  Complete  Works,  II.,  107. 


MYTHOLOGY  259 

the  guardian  genius.  The  belief  that  par 
ticular  individuals  are  attended  by  a  good 
fortune  which  makes  them  desirable  associ 
ates  in  any  enterprise  of  uncertain  success, 
exists  not  only  among  those  who  take  part  in 
political  and  military  projects,  but  influences 
all  joint  action  of  commerce  and  affairs,  and 
a  corresponding  assurance  in  the  individuals 
so  distinguished  meets  and  justifies  the  expec 
tation  of  others  by  a  boundless  self-trust. 
.  .  .  This  faith  is  familiar  in  one  form — 
that  often  a  certain  abdication  of  prudence 
and  foresight  is  an  element  of  success;  that 
children  and  young  persons  come  off  safe 
from  casualties  that  would  have  proved  dan 
gerous  to  wiser  people.  We  do  not  think  the 
young  will  be  forsaken;  but  he  is  fast  ap 
proaching  the  age  when  the  sub-miraculous 
external  protection  and  leading  are  with 
drawn  and  he  is  committed  to  his  own  care. 
The  young  man  takes  a  leap  in  the  dark  and 
alights  safe.  As  he  comes  into  manhood,  he 
remembers  passages  and  persons  that  seem, 
as  he  looks  at  them  now,  to  have  been  super- 
naturally  deprived  of  injurious  influence  on 
him.  His  eyes  were  holden  that  he  could  not 
see.  But  he  learns  that  such  risks  he  may  no 
longer  run.  He  observes,  with  pain,  not  that 


260    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

he  incurs  mishaps  here  and  there,  but  that  his 
genius,  whose  invisible  benevolence  was 
tower  and  shield  to  him,  is  no  longer  present 
and  active."  1 

In  another  place,  he  explains  the  meaning 
of  a  presiding  genius  as  held  by  the  ancients 
by  writing:  "We  recognize  obscurely  the 
same  fact,  though  we  give  it  our  own  names. 
We  say  that  every  man  is  entitled  to  be  valued 
by  his  best  moment.  We  measure  our  friends 
so.  We  know  they  have  intervals  of  folly, 
whereof  we  take  no  heed,  but  wait  these  ap- 
pearings  of  the  genius,  which  are  sure  and 
beautiful.  On  the  other  side,  everybody 
knows  people  who  appear  bedridden,  and 
who,  with  all  degrees  of  ability,  never  im 
press  us  with  the  air  of  free  agency.  They 
know  it,  too,  and  peep  with  their  eyes  to  see 
if  you  detect  their  sad  plight.  We  fancy, 
could  we  pronounce  the  solving  word  and  dis 
enchant  them,  the  cloud  would  roll  up,  the 
little  rider  would  be  discovered  and  unseated, 
and  they  would  regain  their  freedom.  The 
remedy  seems  never  to  be  far  off,  since  the 
first  step  into  thought  lifts  this  mountain  of 
necessity.  Thought  is  the  pent  air-ball  which 

i  Complete  Works,  X.,  15-16. 


MYTHOLOGY  261 

can  rive  the  planet,  and  the  beauty  which 
certain  objects  have  for  him  is  the  friendly 
fire  which  expands  the  thought  and  acquaints 
the  prisoner  that  liberty  and  power  await 
him."  1 

In  such  exposition  of  the  meaning  of  a  pre 
siding  genius  Emerson  is  treating  in  his  own 
way  a  subject  which  Plutarch,  in  his  Dis 
course  Concerning  Socrates'  Daemon,  had  al 
ready  handled  and  which  in  Proclus  is  the 
occasion  for  much  speculation.  Without 
adopting  the  views  of  either,  Emerson  main 
tains  his  independence,  while  at  the  same 
time  engaged  in  a  solution  of  the  question 
which  Socrates'  utterances  concerning  his 
Daemon  had  raised. 

Thus  it  is  evident  that  reading  in  the 
Platonists  fed  the  moralizing  tendency  in 
Emerson's  mind  and  afforded  him  interpreta 
tions  of  parts  of  ancient  mythology  which  he 
either  adopts  as  his  own  or  with  such  changes 
as  he  wished  to  make  in  them.  And  just  as 
he  gathered  homely  proverbs,  so  he  attended 
to  the  collection  of  such  myths  as  attracted 
his  attention  in  his  reading.  He  found  them 
significant  expressions  of  the  Universal  Mind. 

i  Ibid.,  VI.,  287-288. 


262    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

And  thus  the  practice  of  using  fables  to  set 
forth  his  teaching  and  the  habit  of  rationaliz 
ing  myths  testify  to  the  influence  of  the  lit 
erary  and  critical  side  of  Platonism  on  his 
own  work. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM 

THE  works  of  Plato  and  the  Platonists 
were  great  storehouses  from  which  Em 
erson  drew  the  material  of  his  thought  on 
nature,  soul,  love,  beauty,  art  and  mythology. 
His  indebtedness  to  Platonism  is  thus  an  as 
sured  thing.  But  Emerson  had  read  thought 
fully,  if  not  widely,  in  other  provinces  of  lit 
erature  and  philosophy,  and  in  the  course  of 
that  reading  had  gathered  much  that  he 
worked  into  his  essays.  But  no  body  of 
thought  did  he  esteem  as  highly  as  Platonism. 
"Plato  is  philosophy,"  he  maintained,  "and 
philosophy  is  Plato." 1  Imbued  with  this 
idea,  he  either  deliberately  leavened  the  sug 
gestions  that  came  to  him  through  non-Pla 
tonic  sources  with  the  leaven  of  Platonism,  or 
he  openly  criticized  the  new  thought  from 
the  standpoint  of  Platonic  theory.  There 
thus  remains  the  consideration  of  the  signifi 
cant  phases  of  Emerson's  thinking  in  which 

1  Complete  Works,  IV.,  40. 

263 


264    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Platonism  though  blended  with  other  thought 
is  seen  in  the  ascendent. 

In  the  writings  of  Oriental  peoples,  espe 
cially  the  Hindoos,  Emerson  found  much 
congenial  reading.  In  his  library  these  vol 
umes  of  the  ancient  East  were  assigned  to  a 
position  on  his  shelves  close  to  the  Platonists ; 
and  in  his  thought  the  teachings  of  both  were 
most  intimately  associated ;  for  both  dwelt  on 
the  fundamental  unity  of  things.  In  his 
essay  on  Plato  he  uses  long  quotations  from 
his  Eastern  books  to  explain  the  idea  of  the 
ineffable  One  of  -the  Platonists.  "The  rap 
tures  of  prayer  and  ecstasy  of  devotion,"  he 
explicitly  states,  "lose  all  being  in  one  Being. 
This  tendency  finds  its  highest  expression  in 
the  religious  writings  of  the  East,  and  chiefly 
in  the  Indian  Scriptures,  in  the  Vedas,  the 
Bhagavat  Geeta,  and  the  Vishnu  Purana. 
Those  writings  contain  little  else  than  this 
idea,  and  they  rise  to  pure  and  sublime  strains 
in  celebrating  it."  1 

Emerson  holds,  too,  that  Plato  drew  certain 
elements  of  his  thought  from  the  East, 
whither,  perhaps,  he  journeyed.2  He  also 
maintains  that  the  influence  of  the  East  was 

1  Complete  Works,  IV.,  49. 
s  Ibid.,  42. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     265 

an  important  factor  in  the  development  of  the 
Neo-Platonism  of  Plotinus  and  his  followers. 
"When  Orientalism  in  Alexandria  found  the 
Platonists,"  he  told  the  auditors  in  his  Har 
vard  course  on  philosophy,  "a  new  school  was 
produced.  The  sternness  of  the  Greek  school, 
feeling  its  way  forward  from  argument  to 
argument,  met  and  combined  with  the  beauty 
of  Orientalism.  Plotinus,  Proclus,  Porphyry, 
and  Jamblicus  were  the  apostles  of  the  new 
philosophy." 1  Orientalism  and  Platonism 
were  thus  intimately  associated  in  his  survey 
of  the  philosophy  of  the  ancient  world. 

This  association  of  the  sacred  writers  of  the 
East  with  Plato  and  the  Platonists  may  have 
arisen  from  Emerson's  adoption  of  the  critical 
attitude  of  Cousin.  That  French  philoso 
pher  was  interested  both  in  Greek  thought 
and  in  the  books  of  the  East.  He  maintained 
that  the  origins  of  Grecian  culture  and  philos 
ophy  are  to  be  found  in  the  sacred  books  of 
the  Oriental  peoples.2  He  denominated  Asia 
the  land  whose  fundamental  character  is 
unity;  where  all  the  elements  of  human  nature 
lay  enveloped  indistinct  within  each  other; 
while  Greece  was  the  land  in  which  these 

1  Atlantic  Monthly,  LI.,  826. 

2  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Philosophy,  42. 


266    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

same  elements  were  developed  and  separated.1 
It  is  a  distinction  that  recalls  Emerson's  state 
ment  that  Asia  is  the  country  of  unity,  while 
Greece  is  the  land  of  culture  and  intellectual 
freedom.2 

It  is  just  this  intellectual  quality  that  pre 
dominates  in  Emerson's  own  adaption  of  the 
philosophy  of  the  ancient  East;  wherever 
the  teachings  of  the  Orient  enter  into  his 
thought  they  are  intellectualized  and  restated 
in  the  terms  of  Hellenic  philosophy. 

One  doctrine  of  the  East  that  attracted 
Emerson's  attention  is  that  of  illusion.  In 
his  own  work  the  subject  is  a  familiar  one;  he 
has  an  essay  and  poem  named  Illusions  and  a 
poem,  Mala,  along  with  several  scattered  ref 
erences  to  the  same  topic.  In  explaining  the 
idea  he  writes:  "This  belief  that  the  higher 
use  of  the  material  world  is  to  furnish  us 
types  or  pictures  to  express  the  thoughts  of 
the  mind,  is  carried  to  its  logical  extreme  by 
the  Hindoos,  who,  following  Buddha,  have 
made  it  the  central  doctrine  of  their  religion 
that  what  we  call  Nature,  the  external  world, 
has  no  real  existence, — is  only  phenomenal. 
Youth,  age,  property,  condition,  events,  per- 

1  Ibid.,  34,  39. 

2  Complete  Works,  IV.,  52. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     267 

sons, — self,  even, — are  successive  maias  (de 
ceptions)  through  which  Vishnu  mocks  and 
instructs  the  soul."  1 

In  Emerson  illusion  becomes  variety  and 
variety  his  favorite  philosophers  had  taught 
him  to  connect  with  identity.  Thus  toward 
the  end  of  his  essay,  Illusions,  he  writes: 
"The  early  Greek  philosophers  Heraclitus 
and  Xenophanes  measured  their  force  on  this 
problem  of  identity.  Diogenes  of  Apollonia 
said  that  unless  the  atoms  were  made  of  one 
stuff,  they  could  never  blend  and  act  with 
one  another.  But  the  Hindoos,  in  their  sacred 
writings,  express  the  liveliest  feeling,  both  of 
the  essential  identity  and  of  that  illusion  which 
they  conceive  variety  to  be."  2  Having  thus 
identified  illusions  with  variety,  Emerson  was 
able  to  resort  to  Platonic  doctrine  to  explain 
the  nature  of  the  constant  element  amid  all 
illusions. 

In  his  poem,  Illusions,  Emerson  applies  his 
teaching  of  the  permanency  of  law  in  the 
world.  Coleridge  had  taught  him  how  to  in 
terpret  Plato's  conception  of  the  idea  as  the 
only  constant  thing  in  a  world  of  perpetual 
flux  by  identifying  it  with  the  law  which  the 

1  Complete  Works,  VIIL,  14-15. 

2  Ibid.,  VI.,  324. 


268    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

mind  finds  operating  in  nature.  Thus  after 
a  statement  of  the  flowing  of  all  mortal  things, 
ever  mutable  and  ever  vanishing  into  vain 
illusions,  he  gives  in  his  second  stanza  the  as 
surance  that — 

"When  thou  dost  return 
On  the  wave's  circulation, 
Behold  the  shimmer, 
The  wild  dissipation, 
And,  out  of  endeavor 
To  change  and  to  flow, 
The  gas  becomes  solid, 
And  phantoms  and  nothings 
Return  to  be  things, 
And  endless  imbroglio 
Is  law  and  the  world."  1 

In  a  second  instance  he  falls  back  on  a 
familiar  tenet  of  his  Platonism  that  beneath 
all  things  there  is  one  constant  stuff.  The  ele 
ment  of  permanency  is  here  conceived  not  as 
law  but  in  a  more  physical  way  as  a  primal 
world-matter  according  to  the  old  partialists 
among  the  Greek  thinkers.  "Such  are  the 
days,"  he  writes,  "the  earth  is  the  cup,  the  sky 
is  the  cover,  of  the  immense  bounty  of  Nature 
which  is  offered  us  for  our  daily  aliment;  but 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  287-288. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     269 

what  a  force  of  illusion  begins  life  with  us 
and  attends  us  to  the  end!  We  are  coaxed, 
flattered  and  duped  from  morn  to  eve,  from 
birth  to  death ;  and  where  is  the  old  eye  that 
ever  saw  through  the  deception?  The  Hin 
doos  represent  Maia,  the  illusory  energy  of 
Vishnu,  as  one  of  his  principal  attributes. 
As  if,  in  this  gale  of  warring  elements  which 
life  is,  it  was  necessary  to  bind  souls  to  human 
life  as  mariners  in  a  tempest  lash  themselves 
to  the  mast  and  bulwarks  of  a  ship,  and 
Nature  employed  certain  illusions  as  her  ties 
and  straps, — a  rattle,  a  doll,  an  apple,  for  a 
child;  skates,  a  river,  a  boat,  a  horse,  a  gun, 
for  the  growing  boy;  and  I  will  not  begin 
to  name  those  of  the  youth  and  adult,  for  they 
are  numberless.  Seldom  and  slowly  the  mask 
falls  and  the  pupil  is  permitted  to  see  that 
all  is  one  stuff,  cooked  and  painted  under 
many  counterfeit  appearances."  1 

In  another  mood  he  asserts  that  beneath  the 
illusions  of  time  is  eternity  and  thus  with 
Plato  conceives  of  time  as  the  image  of  eter 
nity.  "In  stripping  time  of  its  illusions,  in 
seeking  to  find  what  is  the  heart  of  the  day, 
we  come  to  the  quality  of  the  moment,  and 
drop  the  duration  altogether.  It  is  the 

1  Complete  Works,  VII,  172. 


270    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

depth  at  which  we  live  and  not  at  all  the  sur 
face  extension  that  imports.  We  pierce  to 
the  eternity,  of  which  time  is  the  flitting  sur 
face;  and,  really,  the  least  acceleration  of 
thought  and  the  least  increase  of  power  of 
thought,  make  life  to  seem  and  to  be  a  vast 
duration.  We  call  it  time ;  but  when  that  ac 
celeration  and  that  deepening  take  effect,  it 
acquires  another  and  a  higher  name."  1 

Finally,  Emerson  finds  the  stay  amid  the 
illusions  of  life  in  an  experience  which  is 
reminiscent  of  the  mystic  experience  of 
Plotinus.  The  most  famous  of  Plotinus'  de 
scriptions  and  the  one  which  impressed  Em 
erson  most  deeply  is  that  closing  sentence  of 
the  Select  Works.  "This,  therefore,  is  the 
life  of  the  Gods,  and  of  divine  and  happy 
men,  a  liberation  from  all  terrene  concerns, 
a  life  unaccompanied  with  human  pleasures, 
and  a  flight  of  the  alone  to  the  alone."  2  The 
loneliness  of  the  experience  echoes  in  the 
closing  paragraph  of  Emerson's  essay,  Illu 
sions:  "There  is  no  chance  and  no  anarchy 
in  the  universe.  All  is  system  and  gradation. 
Every  god  is  there  sitting  in  his  sphere.  The 
young  mortal  enters  the  hall  of  the  firmament; 

1  Ibid.,  VII.,  183. 

2  p.  506. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     271 

there  is  he  alone  with  them  alone,  they  pour 
ing  on  him  benedictions  and  gifts,  and  beckon 
ing  him  up  to  their  thrones.  On  the  instant, 
and  incessantly,  fall  snow-storms  of  illusions. 
He  fancies  himself  in  a  vast  crowd  which 
sways  this  way  and  that  and  whose  movement 
and  doings  he  must  obey;  he  fancies  him 
self  poor,  orphaned,  insignificant.  The  mad 
crowd  drives  hither  and  thither,  now  furiously 
commanding  this  thing  to  be  done,  now  that 
What  is  he  that  he  should  resist  their  will, 
and  think  or  act  for  himself?  Every  moment 
new  changes  and  new  showers  of  deceptions 
to  baffle  and  distract  him.  And  when,  by  and 
by,  for  an  instant,  the  air  clears  and  the  cloud 
lifts  a  little,  there  are  the  gods  still  sitting 
around  him  on  their  thrones, — they  alone 
with  him  alone."  1 

In  the  treatment  of  the  Hindoo  doctrine 
of  illusions,  then,  Emerson  comes  finally  to 
interpret  it  from  the  standpoint  of  those  teach 
ings  of  Platonism  which  appear  constantly 
throughout  his  work.  The  conception  of 
law,  or  idea,  the  identity  of  all  things,  the  doc 
trine  of  time  as  an  image  of  eternity — such 
are  the  familiar  tenets  of  his  Platonism  that 
enable  him  to  treat  the  subject  of  illusion  as 

1  Complete  Works,  VL,  325. 


272    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

the  equivalent  of  the  doctrine  of  the  flux  of 
things.  Such  a  hold  has  Platonism  upon  his 
way  of  viewing  the  illusive  character  of  life 
that  he  even  imitates  the  most  notable  passage 
in  Plotinus  in  which  Plotinus  teaches  absolute 
communion  of  the  Soul  with  the  Divine  as 
the  highest  and  only  reality  in  all  experience. 
A  second  idea  of  the  Hindoos  which  Emer 
son  uses  is  that  of  the  transmigration  of  souls. 
This  doctrine,  Emerson  holds,  implies  the 
Platonic  doctrine  of  Reminiscence.  Thus  he 
writes:  "The  soul  having  been  often  born, 
or,  as  the  Hindoos  say,  'travelling  the  path 
of  existence  through  thousands  of  births,'  hav 
ing  beheld  the  things  which  are  here,  those 
which  are  in  heaven  and  those  which  are  be 
neath,  there  is  nothing  of  which  she  has  not 
gained  the  knowledge :  no  wonder  that  she  is 
able  to  recollect,  in  regard  to  any  one  thing, 
what  formerly  she  knew.  'For,  all  things  in 
nature  being  linked  and  related,  and  the  soul 
having  heretofore  known  all,  nothing  hinders 
but  that  any  man,  who  has  recalled  to  mind, 
or,  according  to  the  common  phrase,  has 
learned,  one  thing  only,  should  of  himself  re 
cover  all  his  ancient  knowledge,  and  find  out 
again  all  the  rest;  if  he  have  but  courage,  and 
faint  not  in  the  midst  of  his  researches.  For 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     273 

inquiry  and  learning  is  reminiscence  all.' 
How  much  more  if  he  that  inquires  be  a  holy 
and  god-like  soul!  For  by  being  assimilated 
to  the  original  soul,  by  whom  and  after  whom 
all  things  subsist,  the  soul  of  man  does  then 
easily  flow  into  all  things,  and  all  things  flow 
into  it;  they  mix;  and  he  is  present  and  sympa 
thetic  with  their  structure  and  law."  1 

This  passage  is  characteristic  of  Emerson's 
treatment  of  Platonic  doctrine.  It  is  a  quo 
tation  from  Plato's  Meno  as  given  in  Taylor's 
translation,  with  only  minor  verbal  changes; 
and  the  quotation  includes  the  whole  passage 
(excepting  the  inserted  clause  giving  the 
Hindoo  rendering)  and  not  merely  the  por 
tion  Emerson  incloses  in  quotation  marks.  It 
also  blends  the  doctrine  of  reminiscence  with 
that  of  the  Over-Soul  which  is  based  on  the 
doctrine  of  the  One  as  given  in  Plotinus. 
Plato  thus  is  Neo-Platonized.  And  finally,  it 
identifies  the  tenet  of  reminiscence  with  the 
Hindoo  doctrine  of  transmigration.  The 
conception  of  transmigration,  then,  which 
Emerson  holds  is  purely  a  Platonic  one ;  it  has 
been  reinterpreted  so  that  the  purely  objective 
rendering  of  the  idea  has  given  way  to  an  in 
tellectual  and  mystical  one. 

1  Complete  Works,  IV.,  96. 


274    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

The  first  use  which  Emerson  made  of  this 
spiritualized  doctrine  of  transmigration  is  to 
be  found  in  his  poem,  Bacchus.  There  he 
prays  for  wine — 

"Wine  of  wine, 
Blood  of  the  world, 
Form  of  forms,  and  mould  of  statures, 
That  I  intoxicated, 
And  by  the  draught  assimilated, 
May  float  at  pleasure  through  all  natures; 
The  bird-language  rightly  spell, 
And  that  which  roses  say  so  well." 

And  the  wine  is  to  be  a  wine  of  reminis 
cence,  too. 

"Pour,  Bacchus!  the  remembering  wine; 
Retrieve  the  loss  of  me  and  mine ! 
Vine  for  vine  be  antidote, 
And  the  grape  requite  the  lote ! 
Haste  to  cure  the  old  despair — 
Reason  in  Nature's  lotus  drenched, 
The  memory  of  ages  quenched; 
Give  them  again  to  shine ; 
Let  wine  repair  what  this  undid; 
And  where  the  infection  slid, 
A  dazzling  memory  revive; 
Refresh  the  faded  tints, 
Recut  the  aged  prints, 
And  write  my  old  adventures  with  the  pen 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     275 

Which  on  the  first  day  drew, 

Upon  the  tablets  blue, 

The  dancing  Pleiads  and  eternal  men."  1 

Other  traces  of  Platonic  influence  appear 
in  the  poem.  Plotinus  holds  to  the  contem 
plative  activity  of  all  things,  even  inanimate 
and  Emerson  reflects  the  same  idea  when  he 
prays  for  wine — 

"That  I,  drinking  this, 
Shall  hear  far  Chaos  talk  with  me; 
Kings  unborn  shall  walk  with  me; 
And  the  poor  grass  shall  plot  and  plan 
What  it  will  do  when  it  is  man."  2 

In  the  title  of  the  poem  Platonism  appears. 
Hafiz  had  used  wine  as  a  theme  for  verse  but 
its  symbolic  use  in  Emerson  is  purely  Platonic. 
"Bacchus,"  explains  Proclus  "is  the  mundane 
intellect  from  which  the  soul  and  the  body  of 
the  world  are  suspended.  .  .  .  But  the 
theologists  frequently  call  Bacchus  wine,  from 
the  last  of  his  gifts.  .  .  ." 3  The  wine 
that  the  poet  prays  for  thus  becomes  the  in 
tellect  which  in  its  divine  intoxication  is  to 

1  Complete  Works,  IX.,  125-127. 

2  Ibid.,  IX.,  126. 

3  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  I.,  216-217. 


276    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

float  through  all  beings.  And  this  intoxica 
tion  is  only  the  inspiration  that  the  true  poet 
should  have.  Hence  it  was  natural  that 
Emerson  in  his  own  copy  of  the  Poems  should 
write  as  a  motto  for  his  poem  this  sentence  on 
poetic  madness  freely  rendered  from  Plato's 
Phaedrus:  "The  man  who  is  his  own  master 
knocks  in  vain  at  the  doors  of  poetry."  l  It 
is  quite  evident,  then,  that  the  transmigration 
of  soul  in  Emerson  is  not  the  physical  kind  the 
Hindoos  taught  but  a  more  spiritual  experi 
ence  as  conceived  by  Plato  and  the  Platonists. 
Even  when  Emerson  does  treat  transmigra 
tion  as  an  objective  thing,  he  interprets  its 
meaning  as  Cudworth,  the  Cambridge  Plato- 
nist,  had  suggested.  In  his  copy  of  Cud- 
worth  a  marked  passage  reads:  "But  as  for 
that  other  transmigration  of  human  souls  into 
the  bodies  of  brutes,  though  it  cannot  be  de 
nied  but  that  many  of  the  ancients  admitted  it 
also,  yet  Timgeus  Locrus,  and  divers  others  of 
the  Pythagoreans,  rejected  it,  any  otherwise 
than  as  it  might  be  taken  for  an  allegorical  de 
scription  of  the  beastly  transformation  that  is 
made  of  men's  souls  by  vice."  2  In  the  same 
manner  Emerson  writes:  "The  transmigra- 

1  Bohn  translation,  I.,  321.     Cf.  Complete  Works  IX.,  443. 

2  The  True  Intellectual  System  of  the  Universe,  I.,  70. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     277 

tion  of  souls  is  no  fable.  I  would  it  were ;  but 
men  and  women  are  only  half  human.  Every 
animal  of  the  barn  yard,  the  field  and  the  for 
est,  of  the  earth  and  of  the  waters  that  are 
under  the  earth,  has  contrived  to  get  a  foot 
ing  and  to  leave  the  print  of  its  features  and 
form  in  some  one  or  other  of  these  upright, 
heaven-facing  speakers.  Ah!  brother,  stop 
the  ebb  of  thy  soul, — ebbing  downward  into 
the  forms  into  whose  habits  thou  hast  now  for 
many  years  slid."  1 

In  certain  other  points  of  indebtedness  to 
the  Hindoo  philosophy  the  persistency  of 
Platonism  is  still  noticeable.  The  name  Over- 
Soul  may  well  have  come  from  the  Bhagavat- 
Gita,  as  one  critic  has  pointed  out.2  There 
the  Supreme  Spirit  is  called  Adhyatma  (Adhi 
meaning  above,  superior  to,  or  presiding  over; 
and  atma,  the  soul, — not  the  soul  that  presides 
over  all,  but  that  which  is  above  the  soul  it 
self)  .  But  the  meaning  which  Emerson  gives 
to  the  expression  in  his  essay,  The  Over-Soul 
is,  as  already  shown,  that  which  Platonism  had 
taught  him  concerning  the  One  and  its  relation 
to  the  other  hypostases.  A  Hindoo  term  has 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  32. 

2  W.    T.    Harris,    Emerson's    Orientalism,    in    Genius    and 
Character  of  Emerson,  edited  by  F.  B.  Sanborn. 


278    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

thus  been  filled  with  Greek  thought;  or  Greek 
thought  has  been  capped  with  an  Hindoo 
name. 

In  Emerson's  poem,  Brahma,  is  found  an  ex 
pression  of  Emerson's  doctrine  of  soul,  or  God, 
which  is  almost  entirely  Hindoo  in  its  man 
ner  of  speech.1  Without  a  knowledge  of  the 
Bhagavat-Gita  the  poem  could  never  have  as 
sumed  the  form  it  now  has.  But  its  doctrines 
of  the  soul  —  immortality  and  independence  of 
time  and  space,  to  which  it  gives  expression. 
are  shared  by  the  Platonist  as  well  as  the  Hin 
doo.  And  the  sentiment  of  the  third  stanza  — 

"They  reckon  ill  who  leave  me  out; 

When  me  they  fly,  I  am  the  wings  ; 
I  am  the  doubter  and  the  doubt, 

And  I  the  hymn  the  Brahmin  sings  —  "  2 

is  that  teaching  familiar  in  Greek  philosophy 
from  Parmenides  through  Plato  to  the  Neo- 
Platonists;  namely,  that  the  knower  and  the 
thing  known  are  one;  or,  as  the  poem  says  — 
"I  am  the  doubter  and  the  doubt."  Emerson 
had  used  the  same  idea  in  his  conception  of 
the  Over-Soul  and  recognized  its  importance 


2  Complete  Works,  IX.,  195. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     279 

in  a  history  of  the  intellect.  It  thus  was  a  nat 
ural  sentiment  to  use  in  a  song  of  the  soul  such 
as  Brahma  is. 

And  so  it  is  plain  that  in  the  fusion  of  Hin 
doo  teaching  with  Platonism  the  latter  re 
tains  its  own  form  and  is  often  felt  as  an  influ 
ence  transforming  the  Hindoo  philosophy  into 
a  new  product.  At  times  the  language  is  that 
of  the  ancient  East  but  it  veils  Greek  thought 
When  the  influence  of  Emerson's  Oriental 
readings  comes  to  be  worked  out  in  all  its  de 
tails,  it  may  be  shown  that  they  colored  the 
manner  of  his  speech  and  accentuated  the  con 
trast  between  body  and  spirit,  but  the  underly 
ing  intellectualism  of  Emerson's  mind  will 
still  claim  a  nearer  kinship  with  Plato  and  the 
Platonists  than  with  the  writings  of  the  Hin 
doos. 

The  doctrines  of  Christianity  are  a  second 
body  of  thought  which  Emerson  associates 
with  Platonism.  "Read  in  Plato,"  he  says, 
"and  you  shall  find  Christian  dogmas,  and  not 
only  so,  but  stumble  on  our  evangelical 
phrases."  1  "Galvanism,"  he  asserts,  "is  in  his 
Phaedo:  Christianity  is  in  it."2  It  is  natural, 
then,  to  examine  certain  phases  of  Christian 

1  Ibid.,  VIII,  180. 

2  Ibid.,  IV.,  40. 


280    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

teaching  in  order  to  determine  to  what  extent 
Emerson  has  interpreted  them  according  to 
the  doctrines  of  Platonism. 

Sin  in  Emerson  is  viewed  in  its  relation  to 
intellect  rather  than  to  conscience  as  Christian 
practice  views  it.  "There  is  no  crime  to  the 
intellect.  That  is  antinomian  or  hyper- 
nomian,  and  judges  law  as  well  as  fact.  'It 
is  worse  than  a  crime,  it  is  a  blunder,'  said 
Napoleon,  speaking  the  language  of  the  intel 
lect.  To  it,  the  world  is  a  problem  in  math 
ematics  or  the  science  of  quantity  and  it  leaves 
out  praise  and  blame  and  all  weak  emotions. 
All  stealing  is  comparative.  If  you  come  to 
absolutes,  pray  who  does  not  steal?  Saints 
are  sad,  because  they  behold  sin  (even  when 
they  speculate)  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
conscience,  and  not  of  the  intellect;  a  confu 
sion  of  thought.  Sin,  seen  from  the  thought, 
is  diminution,  or  less;  seen  from  the  conscience 
or  will,  it  is  pravity  or  bad.  The  intellect 
names  it  shade,  absence  of  light,  and  no  es 
sence.  The  conscience  must  feel  it  as  essence, 
essential  evil.  This  it  is  not;  it  has  an  objec 
tive  existence,  but  no  subjective." 

Such  reasoning  shows  that  Emerson  identi 
fies  sin  with  evil,  as  conceived  by  the  Plato- 

1  Ibid.,  III.,  79. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     281 


who  held  that  it  was  non-being.  As 
Proclus  in  his  treatise  on  the  Subsistence  of 
Evil  says,  "There  is  not,  however,  such  a  thing 
as  unmingled  evil,  and  evil  itself,  or  an  eternal 
idea,  form  and  essence  of  evil,  but  moral  evil 
is  mixed  with  good,  and  so  far  as  it  is  good,  it 
subsists  from  divinity,  but  so  far  as  evil,  it  is 
derived  from  another  cause  which  is  impotent. 
For  evil  is  nothing  else  than  a  greater  or  less 
declination,  departure,  defect  and  privation 
from  the  good  itself,  and  which  is  good  alone, 
in  the  same  manner  as  darkness  from  the 


sun." 


Emerson  adopts  the  theory  that  men  do  evil 
involuntarily.  "I  believe  not  in  two  classes 
of  men,  but  in  man  in  two  moods,  in  Philip 
drunk  and  Philip  sober.  I  think  according  to 
the  good-hearted  word  of  Plato,  'Unwillingly 
the  soul  is  deprived  of  truth.'  Iron  conserv 
ative,  miser,  or  thief,  no  man  is  but  by  a  sup 
posed  necessity  which  he  tolerates  by  shortness 
or  torpidity  of  sight."  2 

This  idea  is  Plato's  familiar  doctrine. 
"No  one,"  he  holds,  in  the  Timceus,  "is  vol 
untarily  bad;  but  he  who  is  depraved  be 
comes  so  through  a  certain  bad  habit  of  body 

1  On  the  Theology  of  Plato,  II.,  500. 

2  Complete  Works,  III.,  271. 


282    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

and  an  ill-governed  education;  and  to  every 
one  these  are  inimical,  as  they  result  in  a  cer 
tain  evil."  1 

The  subject  of  prayer  is  one  which  Emer 
son  noted  in  the  Platonists ;  in  his  Proclus  and 
his  lamblichus  he  has  indexed  the  most  sig 
nificant  passages  on  this  topic.  There  he 
found  prayer  in  its  highest  form  identified 
with  the  mystic  union  of  soul  with  the  divine. 
"The  third  and  most  perfect  species  of 
prayer,"  lamblichus  explains,  "is  the  seal  of 
ineffable  union  'with  the  divinities,  in  whom  it 
establishes  all  the  power  and  authority  of 
prayer;  and  thus  causes  the  soul  to  repose  in 
the  Gods,  as  in  a  never  failing  port  .  .  . 
It  also  gradually  and  silently  draws  upwards 
the  manners  of  our  soul,  by  divesting  them  of 
every  thing  foreign  to  a  divine  nature,  and 
clothes  us  with  the  perfections  of  the  Gods. 
Besides  this,  it  produces  an  indissoluble 
communion  and  friendship  with  divinity, 
nourishes  a  divine  love,  and  inflames  the 
divine  part  of  the  soul.  Whatever  is  of  an 
opposing  and  contrary  nature  in  the  soul,  it 
expiates  and  purifies;  expels  whatever  is 
prone  to  generation,  and  retains  anything  of 
the  dregs  of  mortality  in  its  ethereal  and 

1  Bohn  translation,  II.,  402. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM    283 

splendid  spirit,  perfects  a  good  hope  and 
faith  concerning  the  reception  of  divine  light; 
and,  in  one  word,  renders  those  by  whom  it  is 
employed  the  familiars  and  domestics  of  the 
Gods."  1 

This  conception  of  prayer  as  a  union  with 
God  is  at  the  basis  of  Emerson's  belief  that  a 
greater  self-reliance  must  characterize  our 
prayers.  The  source  of  the  reliance  is,  as  has 
already  been  indicated,  in  the  dwelling  of 
God  or  the  One  in  the  soul  of  man.  There 
fore  he  writes:  "In  what  prayers  do  men 
allow  themselves!  That  which  they  call  a 
holy  office  is  not  so  much  as  brave  and  manly. 
Prayer  looks  abroad  and  asks  for  some  foreign 
addition  to  come  through  some  foreign  vir 
tue,  and  loses  itself  in  endless  mazes  of  natural 
and  supernatural,  and  mediatorial  and  mirac 
ulous.  Prayer  that  craves  a  particular  com 
modity,  anything  less  than  all  good,  is  vicious. 
Player  is  the  contemplation  of  the  facts  of  life 
from  the  highest  point  of  view.  It  is  the  so 
liloquy  of  a  beholding  and  jubilant  soul.  It 
is  the  spirit  of  God  pronouncing  his  works 
good.  But  prayer  as  a  means  to  effect  a 
private  end  is  meanness  and  theft.  It  sup 
poses  dualism  and  not  unity  in  nature  and 

1  On  the  Mysteries,  271-273. 


284    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

consciousness.  As  soon  as  man  is  at  one  with 
God,  he  will  not  beg."  l 

In  his  conception  of  the  fall  of  man  Emer 
son  adopts  the  Platonic  explanation.  "It  is 
very  unhappy,  but  too  late  to  be  helped,  the 
discovery  we  have  made  that  we  exist.  That 
discovery  is  called  the  Fall  of  Man.  Ever 
afterwards  we  suspect  our  instruments.  We 
have  learned  that  we  do  not  see  directly,  but 
mediately,  and  that  we  have  no  means  of  cor 
recting  these  colored  and  distorting  lenses 
which  we  are,  or  of  computing  the  amount 
of  their  errors.  Perhaps  these  subject-lenses 
have  a  creative  power;  perhaps  there  are  no 
objects.  Once  we  lived  in  what  we  saw ;  now, 
the  rapaciousness  of  this  new  power,  which 
threatens  to  absorb  all  things,  engages  us. 
Nature,  art,  persons,  letters,  religions,  objects, 
successively  tumble  in,  and  God  is  but  one  of 
its  ideas."  2 

This  explanation  which  finds  the  fall  of 
man  to  be  a  deterioration  in  his  faculty  of 
spiritual  intuition  is  in  keeping  with  the 
theory  of  the  descent  of  the  soul  which  Pro- 
clus  gives  in  a  passage  marked  by  Emerson. 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  77. 
*Ibid.,  Ill,  75-76. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     285 

"From  the  beginning,  therefore,  and  at  first, 
the  soul  was  united  to  the  Gods,  and  its  unity 
to  their  one.  But  afterwards  the  Soul  de 
parting  from  this  divine  union  descended  into 
intellect,  and  no  longer  possessed  real  beings 
unitedly,  and  in  one,  but  apprehended  and  sur 
veyed  them  by  simple  projections,  and,  as  it 
were,  contacts  of  its  intellect.  In  the  next 
place,  departing  from  intellect,  and  descend 
ing  into  reasoning  and  dianoia,  it  no  longer  ap 
prehended  real  beings  by  simple  intuitions, 
but  syllogistically  and  transitively,  proceeding 
from  one  thing  to  another,  from  propositions 
to  conclusions.  Afterwards,  abandoning  true 
reasoning,  and  the  dissolving  peculiarity,  it 
descended  into  generation,  and  became  filled 
with  much  irrationality  and  perturbation."  1 
Associated  with  the  idea  of  the  fall  of  man 
is  Emerson's  teaching  of  imbecility  as  the  pre 
vailing  trait  of  man  through  all  the  ages. 
"The  key  to  the  age  may  be  this,  or  that,  or 
the  other,  as  the  young  orators  describe;  the 
key  to  all  ages  is — Imbecility;  imbecility  in 
the  vast  majority  of  men  at  all  times,  and  even 
in  heroes  in  all  but  certain  eminent  moments ; 
victims  of  gravity,  custom  and  fear.  This 

1  Quoted  in  lamblichus,  On  the  Mysteries,  355. 


286    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

gives  force  to  the  strong — that  the  multitude 
have  no  habit  of  self-reliance  or  original 
action."  l 

This  is  the  teaching  of  lamblichus.  In  a 
passage  marked  by  Emerson  he  says:  "For 
since  it  is  not  possible  to  speak  rightly  about 
the  Gods  without  the  Gods,  much  less  can  any 
one  perform  works  which  are  of  an  equal  dig 
nity  with  divinity,  and  obtain  the  fore-knowl 
edge  of  everything  without  [the  inspiring  in 
fluence  of]  the  Gods.  For  the  human  race  is 
imbecile,  and  of  small  estimation,  sees  but  a  lit 
tle  and  possesses  a  connascent  nothingness ;  and 
the  only  remedy  of  its  inherent  error,  pertur 
bation,  and  unstable  mutation,  is  its  participa 
tion,  as  much  as  possible,  of  a  certain  portion 
of  divine  light."  2 

In  reviewing  Emerson's  treatment  of  the 
doctrines  of  sin,  evil,  prayer,  the  fall  of  man, 
his  weakness,  all  of  which  bulk  so  prominently 
in  Christian  dogmatics,  it  appears  that  the  in- 
tellectualism  of  Plato  and  the  mysticism  of  the 
Platonists  determine  Emerson's  interpreta 
tion.  Sin  and  evil  are  not  positive  things; 
they  are  viewed  from  the  intellect  as  merely 
negative.  The  essence  of  prayer  is  the  mystic 

1  Complete  Works,  VI.,  54. 

2  On  the  Mysteries,  164. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     287 

union  of  the  soul  with  the  divine  which  prac 
tically  excludes  the  possibility  of  such  simple 
requests  as  "Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread." 
The  fall  of  man  is  a  lapse  of  intellect  which 
begins  when  man  ceases  to  live  mystically 
united  with  the  Divine.  The  intellectual 
quality  of  all  this  teaching  attracted  Emerson. 
The  lack  of  this  he  felt  in  Christian  teaching; 
that  appealed  to  emotion  rather  than  to 
intellect  in  man.  The  Platonists  dwelt  "in  a 
worship  which  makes  the  sanctities  of  Chris 
tianity  look  parvenues  and  popular;  for  'per 
suasion  is  in  soul,  but  necessity  is  in  intel 
lect.'  "  1  In  that  distinction,  which  Emerson 
found  in  Plotinus,2  Emerson  reveals  the  differ 
ence  he  felt  between  Christian  and  Platonic 
teaching.  Hence  results  the  purely  intellec 
tual  character  of  all  he  has  to  say  on  Chris 
tian  subjects. 

The  ascendency  of  Platonism  in  Emerson's 
thinking  appears  in  his  relation  to  the  tran 
scendental  philosophy  of  Germany.  He  came 
in  contact  with  this  thought  in  his  reading  in 
Coleridge.  The  Biographta  Literaria  and 
The  Friend  of  Coleridge  are  two  works  which 
Emerson  had  carefully  studied,  and  in  them 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  346. 

2  Select  Works,  417. 


288     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

the  teachings  of  Kant  and  especially  of  Schell- 
ing  are  openly  stated  to  have  been  important 
factors  in  the  development  of  Coleridge's 
spiritual  life.  Emerson  gained  a  further 
knowledge  of  German  philosophy  from  an 
anonymous  translation  of  The  Critique  of 
Pure  Reason,  published  in  1838.  This  book 
is  in  his  library  and  shows  some  markings  and 
an  index  with  entries — uLocke  and  Hume," 
"Immortality,"  and  "Oblate  Sphericity." 
Emerson  was  familiar  also  with  an  account  of 
the  systems  of  Kant,  Fichte,  and  Schelling 
that  appeared  in  the  Christian  Examiner  for 
March,  1833.  He  valued  highly  Dr.  James 
Hutchinson  Stirling's  Secret  of  Hegel;  but  as 
this  book  was  not  published  until  1865  ^  could 
have  influenced  Emerson's  thinking  only  after 
his  main  work  had  been  done.  The  same  is 
true  even  in  a  greater  degree  of  his  indebted 
ness  to  Edward  Caird's  A  Critical  Account  of 
the  Philosophy  of  Kant  (1877),  which  is  also 
in  his  library.  As  far  then  as  his  opportuni 
ties  were  concerned  Emerson  was  able  even  in 
his  early  period  of  literary  activity  to  gain  a 
notion  of  Kant's  philosophy  directly  through 
translation  and  of  the  teachings  of  Schelling 
and  the  others  through  indirect  sources. 
But  Emerson  does  not  forget  the  primacy  of 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     289 

Platonism  in  his  criticism  of  this  German 
philosophy.  He  does  not  regard  it  as  an  orig 
inal  thought  product:  he  finds  its  sources  in 
the  older  philosophies  of  Greece.  "Any  his 
tory  of  philosophy  fortifies  my  faith,"  he 
says,  "by  showing  me  that  what  high  dogmas 
I  had  supposed  were  the  rare  and  late  fruit  of 
a  cumulative  culture,  and  only  now  possible 
to  some  recent  Kant  or  Fichte — were  the 
prompt  improvisations  of  the  earliest  inquir 
ers;  of  Parmenides,  Heraclitus,  and  Xeno- 
phanes." 1  "Hegel,"  he  adds  in  another 
place,  "pre-exists  in  Proclus,  and  long  before, 
in  Heraclitus  and  Parmenides." 2  Schell- 
ing's  identity-philosophy  couched  in  the 
statement  that  "all  difference  is  quantitative," 
he  includes  among  those  generalizations 
which  "do  all  have  a  kind  of  filial  retrospect 
to  Plato  and  the  Greeks."3  Of  Coleridge 
Emerson  once  speaks  very  highly  as  one 
"whose  philosophy  compares  with  others 
much  as  astronomy  with  other  sciences ;  taking 
post  at  the  center,  and,  as  from  a  specular 
mount,  sending  sovereign  glances  to  the  cir 
cumference  of  things."  4  This  was  said  when 

1  Complete  Works,  L,  160. 

2  Ibid.,  VIII.,  180. 

3  Ibid.,  V.,  241,  242. 

4  J.  E.  Cabot,  A  Memoir  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  I.,  161. 


290    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Emerson  was  but  twenty-three  years  old;  but 
later,  when  he  came  to  review  the  teachings 
of  Plato,  he  found  Coleridge  a  "reader  of 
Plato,  translating  into  the  vernacular,  wittily, 
his  good  things."  1 

Such  relegation  of  Coleridge  and  the  Ger 
mans  to  a  dependency  upon  ancient  Greek 
thought  does  not  mean  that  Emerson  totally 
ignored  their  work.  His  writings  bear  traces 
of  indebtedness  to  German  transcendentalism ; 
but  in  his  treatment  of  German  thought  he 
does  not  identify  himself  very  closely  with 
the  Germans.  He  was  content  to  accept  the 
terms  they  used  and  at  times  he  agrees  with 
their  doctrines;  but  true  to  his  favorite  Plato- 
nism,  he  always  reads  its  meanings  into  these 
terms  and  consciously  interprets  the  doctrines 
of  the  Germans  in  his  own  characteristically 
Platonic  manner. 

Emerson's  conception  of  the  transcenden- 
talist  will  bear  out  this  statement.  He  de 
votes  an  entire  lecture  to  this  subject.  If 
there  had  been  much  of  the  German  product 
in  his  mind  it  would  surely  have  come  to  the 
surface.  But  his  point  of  view  is  that  of  one 
who  considers  the  question  from  a  superior 
height.  Transcendentalism  is  no  new  thing 

1  Complete  Works,  IV.,  39. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     291 

to  him.  "The  first  thing  we  have  to  say  re 
specting  what  are  called  new  views  here  in 
New  England,  at  the  present  time,  is,  that 
they  are  not  new,  but  the  very  oldest  thoughts 
cast  into  the  mould  of  these  new  times  .  .  . 
What  is  popularly  called  Transcendentalism 
among  us  is  Idealism;  Idealism  as  it  appears 
in  I842."1 

His  characterization  of  the  Transcenden- 
talist  thus  proceeds  to  enumerate  traits  which 
have  already  been  seen  to  root  themselves  in 
Platonism.  At  the  very  heart  of  the  philoso 
phy  of  the  Transcendentalist  is  the  emanation 
Theory.  "His  experience,"  Emerson  says,  "in 
clines  him  to  behold  the  procession  of  facts  you 
call  the  world,  as  flowing  perpetually  outward 
from  an  invisible,  unsounded  centre  in  him 
self,  centre  alike  of  him  and  them,  and  neces 
sitating  him  to  regard  all  things  as  having  a 
subjective  or  relative  existence,  relative  to  that 
aforesaid  Unknown  Centre  of  him." 2  Out 
of  this  doctrine  arises  the  central  idea  of  his 
ethics — self-reliance.3  The  Transcendental 
ist  believes,  too,  "in  miracle,  in  the  perpetual 
openness  of  the  human  mind  to  a  new  influx 

1  Complete  Works,  L,  329. 
*/&«.,  L,  334. 
a  Ibid. 


292     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

of  light  and  power;  he  believes  in  inspiration 
and  in  ecstasy."  1  The  Transcendentalists  are 
lonely  people  caring  little  for  society  and  at 
times  unwilling  to  take  an  active  part  in  its 
labors.  But  such  seclusion  is  for  the  purpose 
of  enabling  them  the  better  to  keep  in  touch 
with  the  divine  within  themselves.2  They  are 
lovers  of  beauty,  too.  "In  the  eternal  trinity 
of  Truth,  Goodness,  and  Beauty,  each  in  its 
perfection  including  the  three,  they  prefer  to 
make  Beauty  the  sign  and  head."  3 

All  these  traits  recall  the  characteristic  teach 
ings  of  Emerson  which,  as  already  pointed 
out,  were  molded  after  the  manner  of  the 
Platonists.  In  fact  the  only  connection  with 
Kant  that  Emerson  speaks  of  is  through  the 
name.  He  thus  declares:  "It  is  well  known 
to  most  of  my  audience  that  the  Idealism  of  the 
present  day  acquired  the  name  Transcenden 
tal  from  the  use  of  that  term  by  Immanuel 
Kant,  of  Konigsburg,  who  replied  to  the  skep 
tical  philosophy  of  Locke,  which  insisted  that 
there  was  nothing  in  the  intellect  which  was 
not  previously  in  the  experience  of  the  senses, 
by  showing  that  there  was  a  very  important 

1  Ibid.,  335. 

2  Ibid.,  342-354- 

3  Ibid.,  354- 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     293 

class  of  ideas  or  imperative  forms,  which  did 
not  come  by  experience,  but  through  which 
experience  was  acquired;  that  there  were  in 
tuitions  of  the  mind  itself;  and  he  denom 
inated  them  Transcendental  forms.  The  ex 
traordinary  profoundness  and  precision  of 
that  man's  thinking  has  given  vogue  to  his 
nomenclature,  in  Europe  and  America,  to 
that  extent  that  whatever  belongs  to  the  class 
of  intuitive  thought  is  popularly  called  at  the 
present  day  Transcendental."  * 

Far  from  claiming  that  this  name  was  given 
because  of  any  conscious  connection  with  the 
philosophy  of  Kant  on  the  part  of  those  who 
were  called  Transcendentalists,  he  openly 
states  in  another  account  that  the  name  was 
given,  nobody  knows  by  whom.2  And  he  adds 
that  the  only  bond  of  union  between  the  mem 
bers  in  the  group  of  New  England  Transcen 
dentalists  was  that  "perhaps  they  only  agreed 
in  having  fallen  upon  Coleridge  and  Words 
worth  and  Goethe;  then  on  Carlyle,  with 
pleasure  and  sympathy." 3 

But  the  ascendency  of  Platonism  is  appar 
ent  not  only  in  Emerson's  conception  of  the 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  339-340. 
--Ibid.,  X.,  343. 
*lbid.,  342. 


294    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

transcendental  movement  in  New  England 
but  even  in  his  manner  of  interpreting  the 
doctrines  of  the  German  philosophers.  This 
is  borne  out  by  the  meaning  which  Emerson 
attaches  to  intuition. 

Emerson  himself  recognizes  a  difference 
between  Kant's  conception  of  intuition  and 
that  interpretation  which  was  generally  main 
tained  among  the  New  England  Transcen- 
dentalists.  As  the  quotation  on  the  origin  of 
the  name  shows,  Emerson  sees  a  difference  be 
tween  the  transcendental  forms  through 
which  according  to  Kant  experience  was  ac 
quired,  and  simple  intuitive  thought.  Kant 
has  reference  to  the  intuitions  of  form  and 
space  through  which  our  knowledge  of  the  ex 
ternal  world  is  given;  but  Emerson  means  by 
intuitive  thought,  at  least  in  its  most  impor 
tant  form,  nothing  less  than  the  mystic  ex 
perience  through  which  the  soul  of  man  en 
ters  into  divine  union  with  God.  Thus  he 
explains  that  when  we  inquire  into  the  nature 
of  the  aboriginal  self,  on  which  a  universal 
reliance  may  be  grounded,  the  inquiry  leads 
us  to  that  primary  wisdom  which  he  calls  in 
tuition  as  distinguished  from  tuition.1  This 
is  not  a  mere  form  of  knowledge,  of  which  we 

1  Complete  Works,  II.,  64. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     295 

become  aware  only  by  a  process  of  reasoning 
on  a  priori  grounds;  but  it  is  a  conscious  ex 
perience  of  the  soul  which  is  higher  than 
knowledge.  It  is  thus  a  different  thing  from 
Kant's  intuition. 

So  too  with  Emerson's  use  of  the  terms  Rea 
son  and  Understanding.  Of  these  he  writes 
to  his  brother:  "Now  that  I  have  used  the 
words,  let  me  ask  you,  Do  you  draw  the  dis 
tinction  of  Milton,  Coleridge,  and  the  Ger 
mans  between  Reason  and  Understanding?  I 
think  it  a  philosophy  itself,  and  like  all  truth, 
very  practical.  Reason  is  the  highest  faculty 
of  the  soul,  what  we  mean  often  by  the  soul  it 
self ;  it  never  reasons,  never  proves;  it  simply 
perceives,  it  is  vision.  The  Understanding 
toils  all  the  time,  compares,  contrives,  adds, 
argues ;  near-sighted  but  strong-sighted,  dwell 
ing  in  the  present,  the  expedient,  the  custom 
ary."  1 

As  this  quotation  shows  the  distinction  ante 
dates  Kant  and  is  found  by  Emerson  in  the 
seventeenth  century  writers;  in  Milton,  for 
instance,  in  whom  Platonism  is  the  ruling 
philosophy,  as  indeed  it  was  in  the  best  minds 
of  his  time.  The  writings  of  Kant  had  given 
vogue  to  these  terms  Reason,  Understanding, 

1  J.  E.  Cabot,  A  Memoir  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  I.,  218. 


296    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

Intuition;  but  as  they  appear  in  Emerson 
they  are  used  in  a  sense  which  is  purely  in 
keeping  with  his  Platonism. 

It  is  to  be  observed,  too,  that  Emerson  is 
following  Coleridge's  lead  in  thus  interpret 
ing  these  terms.  Coleridge  tells  us  that  he 
had  "cautiously  discriminated  the  terms,  the 
reason  and  the  understanding,  encouraged  and 
confirmed  by  the  authority  of  our  genuine 
divines  and  philosophers,  before  the  Revolu 
tion."  1  He  quotes  a  passage  from  Milton  to 
support  his  statement,  a  passage  which  Emer 
son  had  in  mind  also.  And  he  explicitly 
states  that  the  use  of  the  word  intuition  by 
these  divines  and  philosophers  is  more  in 
clusive  than  Kant's.  "I  take  this  occasion  to 
observe,"  he  writes,  "that  here  and  elsewhere 
Kant  uses  the  terms  intuition,  and  the  verb 
active  (intueri  Germanice  anschauen)  for 
which  we  have  unfortunately  no  correspon 
dent  word,  exclusively  for  that  which  can  be 
represented  in  space  and  time.  He  therefore 
consistently  and  rightly  denies  the  possibility 
of  intellectual  intuitions.  But  as  I  see  no  ade 
quate  reason  for  this  exclusive  sense  of  the 
term,  I  have  reverted  to  its  wider  significa- 

1  The  Complete  Works  of  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  III., 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     297 

tion,  authorized  by  our  elder  theologians  and 
metaphysicians,  according  to  whom  the  term 
comprehends  all  truths  known  to  us  without 
a  medium."  1 

This  use  of  the  term  is  associated  with  the 
practice  of  the  Platonists  which  was  followed 
by  the  seventeenth  century  theologians  that 
Coleridge  refers  to.  And  it  is  interesting  to 
note  that  Coleridge  falls  back  upon  Plotinus 
for  an  explanation  of  such  intuitive  knowl 
edge.  Thus  to  illustrate  the  character  of  the 
transcendental  consciousness  he  quotes  Plo 
tinus:  "It  is  not  lawful  to  inquire  from 
whence  it  sprang,  as  if  it  were  a  thing  subject 
to  place  and  motion,  for  it  neither  approached 
hither,  nor  again  departs  from  hence  to  some 
other  place;  but  it  either  appears  to  us  or  it 
does  not  appear.  So  that  we  ought  not  to  pur 
sue  it  with  a  view  of  detecting  its  secret 
source,  but  to  watch  in  quiet  till  it  suddenly 
shines  upon  us;  preparing  ourselves  for  the 
blessed  spectacle  as  the  eye  waits  patiently  for 
the  rising  sun."  2  Intuition  thus  blends  in 
Coleridge  with  the  mystic  vision  as  taught  in 
Plotinus. 

Direct  evidence  to  prove  Emerson's  con- 


352,  note. 
*Ibid.,  III.,  327-328. 


298    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

nection  with  Coleridge  is  at  hand.  To  the 
doctrine  of  correlation  of  mind  and  matter 
Emerson  was  an  enthusiastic  adherent;  and 
the  perception  of  the  relation  between  these 
two  poles  of  thought,  mind  and  matter,  he  de 
scribes  as  an  intuition.  Thus  he  writes: 
"This  relation  between  the  mind  and  matter  is 
not  fancied  by  some  poet,  but  stands  in  the 
will  of  God,  and  so  is  free  to  be  known  by  all 
men.  It  appears  to  men,  or  it  does  not  ap 
pear.  When  in  fortunate  hours  we  ponder 
this  miracle,  the  wise  man  doubts  if  at  all 
other  times  he  is  not  blind  and  deaf,  .  .  . 
for  the  universe  becomes  transparent,  and  the 
light  of  higher  laws  than  its  own  shines 
through  it."  1 

The  connection  of  this  idea  with  Plotinus' 
explanation  of  intuition  is  seen  in  the  identity 
of  expressions.  Plotinus  writes  of  the  mystic 
experience — "It  either  appears  to  us  or  it  does 
not  appear";  and  Emerson  echoes  the  lan 
guage  in  his — "It  appears  to  men,  or  it  does 
not  appear."  Now,  this  translation  of  the 
passage  of  Plotinus  in  question  appears  only 
in  Coleridge's  account;  it  is  not  to  be  found 
in  any  of  Thomas  Taylor's  renderings. 
Emerson  must  then  have  noted  it  in  Coleridge. 

i  Complete  Works,  I.,  33-34. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     299 

It  explained  intuition  in  a  manner  more  con 
genial  to  his  way  of  thinking  than  was  Kant's 
restricted  use  of  the  term.  Intuition  thus  be 
came  identical  with  the  mystic  experience  he 
dwells  upon  in  his  Over-Soul. 

The  ascendency  of  Platonism  is  also  present 
in  Emerson's  treatment  of  Kant's  conception 
of  morals.  On  the  primacy  of  morals  Kant 
lays  great  stress.  A  will  is  morally  good,  he 
holds,  when  it  is  determined  solely  by  duty. 
And  this  duty  is  felt  in  a  moral  consciousness 
which  expresses  itself  in  the  form  of  a  de 
mand,  or  a  categorical  imperative:  Thou 
shalt  do  what  the  law  prescribes,  uncondition 
ally,  whatever  consequences  may  result.1 

When  Emerson  adopts  this  high  conception 
of  duty,  he  connects  the  experience  with  the 
mystic  union  of  man  with  the  Supreme  Wis 
dom.  The  perception  of  the  moral  law,  he 
holds  is  "divine  and  deifying.  It  is  the  beati 
tude  of  man.  It  makes  him  illimitable. 
Through  it,  the  soul  first  knows  itself.  It 
corrects  the  capital  mistake  of  the  infant  man, 
who  seeks  to  be  great  by  following  the  great, 
and  hopes  to  derive  advantages  from  another 
— by  showing  the  fountain  of  all  good  to  be 
in  himself,  and  that  he,  equally  with  every 

1  Friedrich  Paulsen,  Immanuel  Kant,  305. 


300    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

man,  is  an  inlet  into  the  deeps  of  Reason. 
When  he  says,  'I  ought';  when  love  warms 
him ;  when  he  chooses,  warned  from  on  high, 
the  good  and  great  deed ;  then,  deep  melodies 
wander  through  his  soul  from  Supreme  Wis 
dom."  1 

Out  of  Kant's  conception  of  the  categorical 
imperative  comes  universality  as  the  test  of 
all  morally  right  conduct.  The  law  thus  be 
comes:  Act  so  that  thy  maxim  may  be  cap 
able  of  becoming  the  universal  natural  law  of 
all  rational  beings.  Or  as  Emerson  says: 
"He  is  moral — we  say  it  with  Marcus  Aurelius 
and  with  Kant — whose  aim  or  motive  may 
become  a  universal  rule,  binding  on  all  intel 
ligent  beings."  2 

But  Emerson  goes  on  to  deduce  from  this 
definition  a  new  conception  of  Universal 
Mind.  "If  from  these  external  statements," 
he  continues  after  applying  the  rule  to  justice, 
courage,  love  and  humility,  "we  come  a  little 
nearer  to  the  fact,  our  first  experiences  in 
moral,  as  in  intellectual  nature,  force  us  to 
discriminate  a  universal  mind,  identical  in  all 
men.  Certain  biases,  talents,  executive  skills, 
are  special  to  each  individual;  but  the  high, 

1  Complete  Works,  L,  125. 
rf.,  X.,  92. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     301 

contemplative,  all-commanding  vision,  the 
sense  of  Right  and  Wrong,  is  alike  in  all.  Its 
attributes  are  self-existence,  eternity,  intuition 
and  command.  It  is  the  mind  of  the  mind. 
We  belong  to  it,  not  it  to  us.  It  is  in  all  men, 
and  constitutes  them  men.  In  bad  men  it  is 
dormant,  as  health  is  in  men  entranced  or 
drunken;  but,  however  inoperative,  it  exists 
underneath  whatever  vices  and  errors.  The 
extreme  simplicity  of  this  intuition  embar 
rasses  every  attempt  at  analysis.  We  can  only 
mark,  one  by  one,  the  perfections  which  it 
combines  in  every  act.  It  admits  of  no  ap 
peal,  looks  to  no  superior  essence.  It  is  the 
reason  of  things."  1 

Kant's  conception  of  morals,  then,  led 
Emerson  to  restate  his  doctrine  of  Universal 
Mind.  To  that,  he  held  firm;  it  is  central  in 
his  beliefs.  But  the  insight  which  Kant  gave 
him  into  the  true  nature  of  moral  conduct  so 
impressed  his  mind  that  he  was  led  to  state  his 
favorite  doctrine  in  a  form  that  would  make 
it  hold  for  morals  as  well  as  for  the  intellect. 
This  he  was  ready  to  do  because  in  his  study 
of  Plato  he  had  come  to  realize  that  intellect 
in  him  is  always  moral. 

Another  instance  of  Emerson's  interpreta- 

1  Complete  Works,  X.,  93. 


302     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

tion  of  a  teaching  of  German  Transcendental 
ism  is  found  in  his  treatment  of  Jacobi's  idea 
that  man  is  superior  to  law.  Such  an  idea, 
Emerson  maintains  is  held  by  the  Transcen- 
dentalist.  "In  action  he  easily  incurs  the 
charge  of  anti-nomianism  by  his  avowal  that 
he,  who  has  the  Law-giver,  may  with  safety 
not  only  neglect,  but  even  contravene  every 
written  commandment  In  the  play  of 
Othello,  the  expiring  Desdemona  absolves  her 
husband  of  the  murder,  to  her  attendant 
Emilia.  Afterwards,  when  Emilia  charges 
him  with  the  crime,  Othello  exclaims, 

"You  heard  her  say  herself  it  was  not  I." 
Emilia  replies, 
"The  more  angel  she,  and  thou  the  blacker  devil." 

"Of  this  fine  incident,  Jacobi,  the  Tran 
scendental  moralist,  makes  use,  with  other 
parallel  instances,  in  his  reply  to  Fichte. 
Jacobi,  refusing  all  measure  of  right  and 
wrong  except  the  determinations  of  the  private 
spirit,  remarks  that  there  is  no  crime  but  has 
sometimes  been  a  virtue.  'I,'  he  says,  'I  am 
that  atheist,  that  godless  person  who,  in  op 
position  to  an  imaginary  doctrine  of  calcula- 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     303 

tion,  would  lie  as  the  dying  Desdemona  lied; 
would  lie  and  deceive,  as  Pylades  when  he 
personated  Orestes;  would  assassinate  like 
Timoleon;  would  perjure  myself  like  Epami- 
nondas  and  John  de  Witt;  I  would  resolve 
on  suicide  like  Cato;  I  would  commit  sacri 
lege  with  David;  yea,  and  pluck  ears  of  corn 
on  the  Sabbath,  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
I  was  fainting  for  lack  of  food.  For  I  have 
assurance  in  myself  that  in  pardoning  these 
faults  according  to  the  letter,  man  exerts  the 
sovereign  right  which  the  majesty  of  his  be 
ing  confers  on  him;  he  sets  the  seal  of  his 
divine  nature  to  the  grace  he  accords.'  "  1 

This  account  of  Jacobi's  belief  comes  from 
Coleridge,  who  gives  a  translation  of  Jacobi's 
letter  to  Fichte:  "Yes,  I  am  that  atheist,  that 
godless  person,  who  in  opposition  to  an  imagi 
nary  doctrine  of  calculation,  to  a  mere  ideal 
fabric  of  general  consequences  that  can  never 
be  realized,  would  lie,  as  the  dying  Desde 
mona  lied;  lie  and  deceive  as  Pylades  when 
he  personated  Orestes;  would  commit  sacri 
lege  with  David;  yea  and  pluck  ears  of  corn 
on  the  Sabbath,  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
I  was  fainting  from  lack  of  food,  and  that  the 
law  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the 

1  Complete  Works,  I.,  336-337. 


304     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

law." 1  In  a  footnote  Coleridge  gives  the 
quotation  from  Othello  that  Jacobi  refers  to. 

A  comparison  of  these  two  passages  shows 
the  character  of  Emerson's  additions  to 
Jacobi's  statement.  The  four  extra  historical 
instances  which  Emerson  adds  to  Jacobi's  list 
do  not  change  his  rendering  materially;  but 
the  final  sentence  of  Emerson's  account  con 
tains  a  significant  addition  to  Jacobi's  words. 
It  gives  a  justification  of  Jacobi's  belief — a 
justification  based  upon  a  purely  Platonic  no 
tion  of  the  divine  nature  of  man. 

In  adding  the  sentence  giving  this  new 
thought  Emerson  had  in  mind  a  passage  in  his 
Select  Works  of  Plotinus.  Plotinus  is  writing 
of  the  union  of  the  soul  with  the  One,  which 
means  that  the  soul  becomes  God.  To  the 
passage  Taylor  appends  a  note  which  Emer 
son  marked  in  his  own  copy  and  which  he 
elsewhere  makes  use  of.2  The  note  reads: 
"Hence  Aristotle  in  his  Politics  also  says, 
that  he  who  surpasses  beyond  all  comparison 
the  rest  of  his  fellow  citizens  in  virtue,  ought 
to  be  considered  as  a  God  among  men.  He 
also  observes,  that  such  a  one  is  no  longer  a 

1  The  Complete   Works  of  Samuel   Taylor  Coleridge,  II., 
285. 

2  Complete  Works,  X.,  477. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     305 

part  of  the  city,  that  law  is  not  for  him,  since 
he  is  a  law  to  himself,  and  that  it  would  be 
ridiculous  in  anyone  to  subject  him  to  the 
laws.  Let  no  one,  however,  who  is  not  thus 
transcendently  virtuous,  fancy  that  law  also  is 
not  for  him  .  .  .  Observe,  too,  that  when 
Plotinus  calls  the  man  who  is  able  in  this  life 
to  see  divinity  a  God,  he  means  that  he  is  a 
god  only  according  to  similitude;  for  in  this 
way,  men  transcendently  wise  and  good  are 
called  by  Plato,  Gods  and  divine."  * 

The  philosophy  of  Kant  and  the  Germans, 
then,  cannot  be  considered  as  the  main  source 
of  Emerson's  transcendentalism.  He  found 
his  inspiration  in  a  scheme  of  thought  that 
antedated  the  appearance  of  the  Germans  by 
over  two  thousand  years.  He  does  use  the 
terms  common  in  that  later  phase  of  specula 
tion.  They  were  in  the  air  at  the  time  and 
he  does  not  hesitate  to  appropriate  them.  But 
he  gives  them  a  new  meaning.  Such  truths, 
too,  in  their  scheme  of  morals  as  appealed  to 
him  he  avails  himself  of;  but  the  interpreta 
tion  he  subjects  them  to  bespeaks  the  ascen 
dency  of  Platonism  in  his  way  of  thinking. 
His  indebtedness  to  the  Germans  is  thus  a 
trifling  matter  and  what  is  more  his  use  of 

1  Select  Works,  500,  note  i. 


306    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

their  suggestions  cannot  be  adequately  ex 
plained  unless  the  influence  of  Platonism  upon 
them  is  reckoned  with. 

It  is  true,  that  Kant  and  Schelling  affected 
Coleridge's  thought.  Without  a  knowledge 
of  Kant's  reasoning  concerning  the  intuitions 
of  time  and  space  Coleridge  would  never 
have  come  to  conceive  of  law  as  an  idea  which 
appears  in  mind  and  at  the  same  time  is  pres 
ent  in  nature.  And  had  this  correlation  of 
law  and  idea  not  appeared  in  Coleridge  it 
would  have  kept  Emerson  from  interpreting 
one  phase  of  Plato  as  he  did.  But  the  inves 
tigation  of  Coleridge's  indebtedness  to  the 
Germans  falls  without  the  scope  of  the  pres 
ent  inquiry;  it  is  sufficient  to  acknowledge  it. 

The  ascendency  of  Platonism  in  Emerson 
shows  itself  also  in  the  formal  criticism  to 
which  he  subjects  the  teachings  of  those  men 
in  whom  he  has  been  interested.  In  his  Rep 
resentative  Men  he  has  left  his  appreciation 
of  Swedenborg,  Montaigne,  Shakespeare, 
Goethe;  but  the  defect  of  each  is  uniform;  he 
did  not  measure  up  to  that  ideal  which  Emer 
son  had  fashioned  in  accordance  with  Plato 
nism. 

In  Swedenborg  Emerson  was  acquainted 
with  a  mind  that  had  fed  upon  Platonism  and 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM     307 

out  of  it  had  built  up  its  theory  of  symbolism. 
This  theory  was  known  to  Plato,  Emerson 
points  out,  "as  is  evident  from  his  twice  bi 
sected  line  in  the  sixth  book  of  the  Repub 
lic."  1  But  Swedenborg,  he  goes  on  to  add 
"first  put  the  fact  into  a  detached  and  scien 
tific  statement,  because  it  was  habitually  pres 
ent  to  him,  and  never  not  seen."  2  Emerson  is 
not,  however,  blind  to  the  faults  of  Sweden- 
borg's  use  of  this  theory.  In  working  out  the 
theory  in  his  doctrine  of  the  correspondences 
between  thoughts  and  things,  his  design, 
Emerson  holds  "was  narrowed  and  defeated 
by  the  exclusively  theologic  direction  which 
his  inquiries  took.  His  perception  of  nature 
is  not  human  and  universal,  but  is  mystical 
and  Hebraic.  He  fastens  each  natural  ob 
ject  to  a  theologic  notion — a  horse  signifies 
carnal  understanding;  a  tree,  perception;  the 
moon,  faith;  a  cat  means  this;  an  ostrich  that; 
an  artichoke  this  other — and  poorly  tethers 
every  symbol  to  a  several  ecclesiastic  sense. 
The  slippery  Proteus  is  not  so  easily  caught. 
In  nature,  each  individual  symbol  plays  in 
numerable  parts,  as  each  particle  of  matter 
circulates  in  turn  through  every  system.  The 

1  Complete  Works,  IV.,  116-117. 

2 /&«*.,    117. 


308     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

central  identity  enables  any  one  symbol  to  ex 
press  successively  all  the  qualities  and  shades 
of  real  being."  1  In  other  words  Sweden- 
borg's  symbolism  is  not  developed  on  the  ab 
stract  and  universal  lines  that  Emerson  had 
been  led  by  the  Platonists  to  follow. 

In  his  treatment  of  Shakespeare  he  applies 
his  notion  of  the  poet  as  philosopher  and  finds 
his  Shakespeare  wanting.  As  the  ideal  poet 
should  do,  Shakespeare  "knew  that  a  tree  had 
another  use  than  for  apples,  and  corn  another 
than  for  meal,  and  the  ball  of  the  earth,  than 
for  tillage  and  roads;  that  these  things  bore 
a  second  and  finer  harvest  to  the  mind,  being 
emblems  of  its  thoughts,  and  conveying  in  all 
their  natural  history  a  certain  mute  commen 
tary  on  human  life.  Shakspeare  employed 
them  as  colors  to  compose  his  picture.  He 
rested  in  their  beauty;  and  never  took  the  step 
which  seemed  inevitable  to  such  genius, 
namely  to  explore  the  virtue  which  resides  in 
these  symbols  and  imparts  this  power: — what 
is  that  which  they  themselves  say?" 2  In 
other  words  Shakespeare  does  not  agree  with 
the  ideal  of  the  poet  which  Emerson  had  de 
veloped  out  of  his  Platonic  sources. 

1  Complete  Works,  IV.,  120-121. 

2  Ibid.,  216-217. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM    309 

Montaigne  was  a  writer  who  cast  a  spell 
over  Emerson.  Speaking  of  his  work  Emer 
son  says:  "It  seemed  to  me  as  if  I  had  my 
self  written  the  book,  in  some  former  life,  so 
sincerely  it  spoke  to  my  thought  and  experi 
ence."  1  Yet  for  the  scepticism  for  which 
Montaigne  stands  Emerson  had  no  sympathy. 
"The  final  solution  in  which  skepticism  is 
lost,"  he  writes,  "is  in  the  moral  sentiment, 
which  never  forfeits  its  supremacy.  All 
moods  may  be  safely  tried,  and  their  weight 
allowed  to  all  objections;  the  moral  senti 
ment  as  easily  outweighs  them  all,  as  any  one. 
This  is  the  drop  which  balances  the  sea.  I 
play  with  the  miscellany  of  facts,  and  take 
those  superficial  views  which  we  call  skepti 
cism;  but  I  know  that  they  will  presently  ap 
pear  to  me  in  that  order  which  makes  skepti 
cism  impossible.  A  man  of  thought  must  feel 
the  thought  that  is  parent  of  the  universe;  that 
the  masses  of  nature  do  undulate  and 
flow.  .  .  .2  Let  a  man  learn  to  look  for  the 
permanent  in  the  mutable  and  fleeting;  let 
him  learn  to  bear  the  disappearance  of  things 
he  was  wont  to  reverence  without  losing  his 
reverence;  let  him  learn  that  he  is  here,  not 

rf.,  162. 

183. 


310    THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

to  work  but  to  be  worked  upon;  and  that, 
though  abyss  open  under  abyss,  and  opinion 
displace  opinion,  all  are  at  last  contained  in 
the  Eternal  Cause  .  .  ." 1  Skepticism  in 
Emerson  thus  loses  itself  in  mysticism  as  he 
had  been  taught  by  Plotinus  to  conceive  it. 

Of  Goethe  Emerson  speaks  at  times  in  high 
praise;  but  his  great  reservation  finds  Goethe 
wanting  in  that  high  power  of  philosophic 
analysis  which  contents  itself  with  nothing  less 
than  absolute  unity.  "I  dare  not  say,"  he 
writes,  "that  Goethe  ascended  to  the  highest 
grounds  from  which  genius  has  spoken.  He 
has  not  worshipped  the  highest  unity;  he  is 
incapable  of  a  self-surrender  to  the  moral 
sentiment  .  .  .  He  has  no  aims  less  large 
than  the  conquest  of  universal  nature,  of  uni 
versal  truth,  to  be  his  portion  .  .  . 
That  is,  Goethe  fails  to  satisfy  that  unifying 
tendency  of  Emerson's  mind  which  enabled 
him  to  appreciate  the  doctrine  of  the  One  as 
expounded  in  Plotinus  and  the  Platonists. 

It  is  evident  that  Emerson  read  as  a  Plato- 
nist.  Swedenborg,  Shakespeare,  Montaigne, 
and  Goethe,  are  all  held  up  to  the  ideals  of 
Platonism  and  their  deficiencies  revealed  by  a 

1  Ibid.,  186. 
*Ibid.,  284. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM    311 

comparison  of  their  ideas  with  Emerson's  con 
ception  of  Platonism.  He  applies  the  same 
standard  of  judgment  to  the  body  of  English 
literature  with  which  he  was  most  familiar. 

In  his  review  of  the  literature  of  England 
he  divides  its  writers  into  Platonists,  or  those 
that  elect  to  see  identity  in  things,  and  non- 
Platonists,  or  those  that  chose  to  see  dis 
crepancies.  Thus  More,  Hooker,  Bacon, 
Sidney,  Lord  Brooke,  Herbert,  Browne, 
Donne,  Spenser,  Chapman,  Milton,  Crashaw, 
Norris,  Cudworth,  Berkeley,  Jeremy  Taylor 
are  Platonists.1 

Bacon,  he  holds,  has  traits  of  both  classes; 
but  it  is  significant  that  Emerson  dwells  upon 
the  ideal,  or  Platonic,  element  in  his  work. 
Thus  he  extracts  from  Bacon's  Advancement 
of  Learning2  an  account  of  Bacon's  prima 
philosophia,  which,  as  has  been  seen,  was  a 
factor  in  developing  Emerson's  conception  of 
the  correlation  of  mind  and  matter.  "Bacon, 
capable  of  ideas,  yet  devoted  to  ends,"  says 
Emerson,  "required  in  his  map  of  the  mind, 
first  of  all,  universality,  or  prima  philosophia; 
the  receptacle  for  all  such  profitable  observa- 

1  Complete  Works,  V.,  238. 

2  Works  of  Francis  Bacon,  edited  by  Basil  Montagu,  II., 
48,  93,  126,  128,  176. 


312     THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

tions  and  axioms  as  fall  not  within  the  com 
pass  of  any  of  the  special  parts  of  the 
philosophy,  but  are  more  common  and  of  a 
higher  stage.  He  held  this  element  essen 
tial;  it  is  never  out  of  mind;  he  never  spares 
rebukes  for  such  as  neglect  it;  believing  that 
no  perfect  discovery  can  be  made  in  a  flat  or 
level,  but  you  must  ascend  to  a  higher  science. 
'If  any  man  thinketh  philosophy  and  univer 
sality  to  be  idle  studies,  he  doth  not  consider 
that  all  professions  are  from  thence  served 
and  supplied;  and  this  I  take  to  be  a  great 
cause  that  has  hindered  the  progression  of 
learning,  because  these  fundamental  knowl 
edges  have  been  studied  but  in  passage.'  He 
explained  himself  by  giving  various  quaint 
examples  of  the  summary  or  common  laws  of 
which  each  science  has  its  own  illustration. 
He  complains  that  'he  finds  this  part  of  learn 
ing  very  deficient,  the  profounder  sort  of  wits 
drawing  a  bucket  now  and  then  for  their  own 
use,  but  the  spring-head  unvisited.  This  was 
the  dry  light  which  did  scorch  and  offend 
most  men's  watery  natures.'  "  1 

But  the  most  significant  thing  in  Emerson's 
account  is  the  identification  of  this  aim  of 
Bacon's  with  that  expressed  in  Plato's  con- 

1  Complete  Works,  V.,  240-241. 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM    313 

ception  of  the  metaphysical  basis  of  all  art. 
Thus  Emerson  adds  to  his  account  of  Bacon: 
"Plato  had  signified  the  same  sense,  when  he 
said,  'All  the  great  arts  require  a  subtle  and 
speculative  research  into  the  law  of  nature, 
since  loftiness  of  thought  and  perfect  mastery 
over  every  subject  seem  to  be  derived  from 
some  such  source  as  this.  This  Pericles  had, 
in  addition  to  a  great  natural  genius.  For, 
meeting  with  Anaxagoras,  who  was  a  person 
of  this  kind,  he  attached  himself  to  him,  and 
nourished  himself  with  sublime  speculations 
on  the  absolute  intelligence;  and  imported 
thence  into  the  oratorical  art  whatever  could 
be  useful  to  it.'  "  1 

Along  with  Emerson's  division  of  English 
writers  into  Platonists  and  non-Platonists  goes 
his  emphasis  .upon  the  Platonists  outside  of 
English  Literature,  whom  he  advises  us  to 
read  as  truly  great  men.  The  portion  of  his 
essay,  Books,  which  he  devotes  to  such  authors 
bulks  larger  than  any  other  single  group  of 
writers.  He  includes  Plato,  Plutarch,  the 
later  Platonists,  Plotinus,  Porphyry,  Proclus, 
Synesius,  lamblichus,  the  so-called  Zoroas- 
trian  Oracles  and  the  remains  of  Hermes 
Trismegistus.  The  last  two  he  classes  among 

1  Ibid.,  241. 


3H  THE  TEACHERS  OF  EMERSON 

the  Bibles  of  the  world.  It  is  thus  a  collec 
tion  of  books  which  reflects  his  own  reading 
and  his  appreciation  of  the  worth  of  the 
Platonists  in  the  world  of  literature. 

The  writings  of  Plato  and  the  Platonists, 
then,  were  the  feeding  ground  for  Emerson's 
mind.  Just  as  the  landscape  artist  keeps  in 
constant  touch  with  the  play  of  light  and 
shade,  with  the  form,  the  color  and  the 
minutest  detail  that  awakens  his  sense  of 
beauty  that  his  canvas  may  give  back  the 
freshness  of  the  scene  he  surveys;  so  Emer 
son,  by  repeated  and  reverent  readings  in  the 
old  philosophers,  toned  his  mind  in  unison 
with  their  speculation  that  his  work  might 
have  something  of  its  calm,  grand  air  of  in 
tellectual  sovereignty.  These  books  were  to 
him  a  piece  of  nature  and  fate.  And  he  at 
tended  only  to  the  utterances  that  had  a  mes 
sage  for  him.  It  is  as  if  a  lone,  wandering 
astral  body  had  swept  through  the  old  systems 
of  thought,  wrested  away  a  fragment  here,  a 
fragment  there,  and  so  violently  drawn  them 
to  itself  that  their  impact  fired  the  central 
mass  with  burning  energy.  What  the  at 
tractive  power  of  Emerson's  mind  is,  is  dis 
cernible  when  these  fragments  of  thought  are 
examined.  It  is  a  mind  that  is  tyrannized 


ASCENDENCY  OF  PLATONISM    315 

over  by  a  unifying  instinct,  that  delights  in  a 
sense  of  ceaseless  movement  or  flux,  that  has 
an  affinity  for  beauty,  that  finds  its  highest 
endeavor  realized  either  in  a  consciousness  of 
the  moral  value  of  the  world  or  in  a  mystical 
union  with  the  moral  reality  itself,  and  that 
insists  above  all  else  on  its  own  independence. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

BACON,  FRANCIS.  The  Works  of  Francis  Bacon.  Ed. 
by  Basil  Montagu.  16  vols.  London,  1825-1836. 

BOSANQUET,  BERNARD.  A  History  of  ^Esthetic.  Lon 
don,  1892. 

BUTCHER,  S.  H.  Aristotle's  Theory  of  Poetry  and  Fine 
Art.  Second  edition.  London,  1898. 

CABOT,  JAMES  ELLIOT.  A  Memoir  of  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson.  2  vols.  Boston  and  New  York,  1895. 

COLERIDGE,  SAMUEL  TAYLOR.  The  Complete  Works  of 
Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge.  Ed.  by  Professor  Shedd. 
7  vols.  New  York,  1868. 

Correspondence  of  Thomas  Carlyle  and  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  The.  2  vols.  Library  edition.  Ed.  by 
Charles  Eliot  Norton.  Boston  and  New  York,  1894. 

COUSIN,  VICTOR.  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Phi 
losophy,  translated  from  the  French  by  Henning 
Gotfried  Linberg.  Boston,  1832. 

CUDWORTH,  RALPH.  The  True  Intellectual  System  of 
the  Universe,  to  which  are  added  the  Notes  and  Dis 
sertations  of  Dr.  J.  L.  Mosheim,  translated  by  John 
Harrison,  M.A.  3  vols.  London,  1845. 

DE  GERANDO,  M.  Histoire  Comparee  des  Systemes  de 
Philosophic.  4  vols.  Paris,  1822. 

317 


318  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

EMERSON,  RALPH  WALDO.  The  Complete  Works  of 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  Centenary  edition.  Ed.  by 
Edward  Waldo  Emerson.  12  vols.  Boston  and 
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FIELDS,  A.  Mr.  Emerson  in  the  Lecture  Room.  In  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  June,  1883. 

HARRIS,  W.  T.  Emerson's  Orientalism,  in  Genius  and 
Character  of  Emerson.  Ed.  by  F.  B.  Sanborn.  Bos 
ton,  1885. 

IAMBLICHUS,  On  the  Mysteries  of  the  Egyptians,  Chal 
deans,  and  Assyrians,  translated  from  the  Greek  by 
Thomas  Taylor.     Second  edition.     London,  1895. 
Life  of  Pythagoras,  or  Pythagoric  Life,   translated 
from  the  Greek  by  Thomas  Taylor.     London,  1818. 

L'ESTRANGE,  ROGER.  Seneca  s  Morals  by  way  of  Ab 
stract.  London,  1746. 

OCELLUS  LUCANUS.  On  the  Nature  of  the  Universe, 
translated  from  the  original  by  Thomas  Taylor. 
London,  1831. 

PAULSEN,  FRIEDRICH.  Immanuel  Kant:  'His  Life  and 
Doctrine,  translated  from  the  revised  German  edition 
by  J.  E.  Creighton  and  Albert  Lefevre.  New  York, 
1902. 

PLATO.  The  Works  of  Plato,  translated  from  the  Greek 
by  Thomas  Taylor.  5  vols.  London,  1804. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  319 

The  Works  of  Plato,  translated  from  the  Greek  by 
H.  F.  Gary,  H.  Davis,  G.  Burges.     Bonn's  Classical 
Library.     6  vols.     London,  1848-1850. 
The  Dialogues  of  Plato ,  translated  into  English  by 
B.  Jowett.     4  vols.     New  York,  1873. 

PLOTINUS.     An  Essay  on  the  Beautiful,  translated  from 

the  Greek  by  Thomas  Taylor.     London,  1792. 
^^five  Books,  translated  from  the  Greek  by  Thomas 
Taylor.     London,  1794. 

On  Suicide,  translated  from  the  Greek  by  Thomas 
Taylor.  London,  1834. 

Select  Works,  translated  from  the  Greek  by  Thomas 
Taylor.  London,  1817.  Contains  extracts  from  the 
treatise  of  Synesius  On  Providence,  with  an  introduc 
tion  containing  the  substance  of  Porphyry's  Life  of 
Plotinus. 

PLUTARCH.  Plutarch's  Essays  and  Miscellanies.  Com 
prising  all  his  works  collected  under  the  title  of 
Morals,  translated  from  the  Greek  by  several  hands. 
Corrected  and  revised  by  William  W.  Goodwin, 
Ph.D.,  with  an  introduction  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emer 
son.  5  vols.  Boston,  1906. 

Plutarch's  Lives,  translated  from  the  original  Greek 
by  John  and  William  Langhorne.  First  Worcester 
edition.  6  vols.  Worcester,  1804. 

PROCLUS.  The  Six  Books  of  Proclus  on  the  Theology 
of  Plato,  translated  from  the  Greek  by  Thomas 
Taylor.  2  vols.  London,  1816.  Contains  a  trans 
lation  of  Proclus'  Elements  of  Theology,  of  his  trea 
tises,  On  Providence  and  Fate,  Ten  Doubts  con- 


320  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

cerning  Providence,  and  On  the  Subsistence  of  Evil. 
The  Commentaries  of  Proclus  on  the  Timteus  of 
Plato,  translated  from  the  Greek  by  Thomas  Taylor. 
2  vols.  London,  1820. 

TAYLOR,  THOMAS.     A  Collection  of  Chaldean  Oracles. 
In  the  Classical  Journal,  1817,  1818. 


INDEX 


American  Scholar,  The,  222. 
Antagonism,  see  under  Pyth- 

agoreanism. 
Anti-nomianism,  302. 
Art,  189. 
Art,  186,  187-188,  195. 


B 


Bacchus,  274-275. 

Bacchus,  275. 

Bacon,  Francis,  Emerson  on, 
23-24,  49,  311-312;  First 
Philosophy  of,  49-51,  311- 
312;  identified  with  Plato, 
312-313;  quoted,  49-51. 

Beauty,  172. 

Beauty,  theory  of,  172-184. 

Being,  no,  120. 

Blight,  74-75. 

Books,  28. 

Brahma,  278. 

By-laws  of  the  mind,  46-48. 


Categorical    imperative,    299- 

300. 
Categories  of  reason,  21. 


Celestial  Love,  158. 

Character,  236. 

Christianity,  doctrines  of, 
279-287. 

Circles,  128. 

Circle,  symbolism  of,  239. 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  correlation 
of  matter  and  mind  in,  42- 
45 ;  Emerson  on,  289-290 ; 
Emerson's  debt  to,  22-23, 
297-298;  on  aim  of  the 
Friend,  22;  on  Bacon  and 
Plato,  22 ;  on  intuition,  296- 
297;  on  Kant,  296-297. 

Comic,  178. 

Compensation,  109-110,  113- 
114. 

Correlation  of  matter  and 
mind,  40-46. 

Cousin,  Victor,  20-21 ;  265. 

Cupid,  256. 

Cupido,  256-257. 

Cudworth,  on  art,  189,  190; 
on  daemons,  153;  on  the 
gods,  201-202;  on  nature, 
34;  on  Pan,  252-254;  on 
Pantheism,  64-65;  on  plas 
tic  nature,  188-189;  on 
Proteus,  255-256;  on  trans 
migration,  276;  on  Univer 
sal  Mind,  80-81. 


32I 


322 


INDEX 


Daemons,  148-153 ;  258-261. 
Damonic  Love,  150-153. 
De  Gerando,  70,  73. 


Each  and  All,  175-177,  179. 

Ecstasy,  29,  116,  118-119,  212- 
214,  291-292. 

Emanation,  62-64,  122,  291. 

Emerson,  as  a  critic,  219; 
elements  of  Neo-Platonism 
in,  24;  errors  in  quoting, 
226-227;  his  interpretation 
of  Plato,  8,  10,  II ;  his  in 
dices,  26,  33,  230,  238,  288; 
his  debt  to  Coleridge,  22- 
23,  297-298;  his  identifica 
tion  of  Bacon  and  Plato, 
312-313;  his  Neo-Plato 
nism,  12;  his  Pythagorean- 
ism,  17,  18,  20;  his  relation 
to  Transcendentalism,  290- 
293,  305-306;  on  Bacon, 
23-24,  49,  311-312;  on 
books,  25;  on  Coleridge, 
289-290;  on  Cudworth,  15; 
on  English  Platonists,  311; 
on  early  philosophers,  13, 
33;  on  German  philosophy, 
289;  on  Goethe,  310;  on 
Montaigne,  309-310;  on 
Oracles,  6;  on  Orientalism, 
265;  on  Plato,  13,  29,  263, 
279;  on  Plutarch,  15-16; 
on  Shakespeare,  308;  on 
Swedenborg,  306-308 ;  on 


Synesius,  5;  on  Taylor,  7- 
8;  his  reading,  in  Cousin, 
20;  in  De  Gerando,  16,  20; 
in  Plato,  20,  29-30;  in 
Platonists,  5-7,  117;  effects 
of,  27-29;  marner  of,  25, 
26;  in  German  philosophy, 
287-288. 

Eternity,  38-39,  137,  240,  269- 
270. 

Ethics,   sovereignty  of,  52. 

£tienne  de  la  Boece,  161-163. 

Evil,  281. 


Fall  of  man,  248,  284. 
Fate,  133. 
Flux,  56-68. 
Friendship,  158. 
Friendship,    158-164, 
Furies,  the,  258. 


Goethe,  310. 
Good  of  evil,  237. 

H 

Hegel,  289. 
Hypostases,  83. 

I 

lamblichus,  on  mystic  union, 
93;  on  daemons,  148;  on 
friendship,  159-160;  on 
symbols,  203;  on  fall  of 
man,  248;  on  prayer,  282- 
283;  on  imbecility,  286. 


INDEX 


323 


Ideas,  53,  59. 
Illusions,  267. 
Illusion,  266-272. 
Imbecility,  285-286. 
Immortality,   134-137. 
Indifferency,  108-115. 
Initial,  D&monic  and  Celestial 

Love,  146-157. 
Intellect,  27. 
Intellect,    125-126,    130,    132- 

134- 
Intuition,  294-295;  298. 


Jacobi,  302-304, 
Jove,  myth  of,  235-237,  242- 
244. 


Kant,  288,  289,  292,  294,  296, 
299,  300,  301,  305- 


Microcosm,  71,  72. 
Montaigne,  309-310. 
Music,  142. 
Mysticism,   92-105,    119,    162, 

270. 
Myths,  in  Emerson,  222-245; 

in  Plato,  221;  rationalized, 

250-262. 


N 


Nature,  34,  40,  41,  76,  77,  124, 
186,  247. 

Nature,  antagonism  in,  68- 
69;  conscious  life  of,  66- 
67;  an  effect,  122-123;  an 
effluxion,  249;  method  of, 
55-68;  mysticized,  116-124; 
restoration  of,  73-76;  sym 
bolism  of,  35-48;  unity  of, 
72-73;  a  work  of  ecstasy, 
116-119. 


Law,    41,   42-45,   58-59,   267- 

268. 

Lecture  on  the  Times,  39. 
Line,  symbolism  of,  239. 
Love,  164. 
Love,  164-172 ;  celestial,  153- 

155;  daemonic,  151-153. 
Lyncaeus,  206,  207. 

M 

Maia,  266. 
Matter,  112-113. 


Ocellus    Lucanus,    117. 

Ode  to  Beauty,  174,  179. 

One,  the,  doctrine  of,  83-84, 
87,  89;  self-sufficient,  106- 
107.  See  'Mysticism. 

One  Man,  myth  of,  222-227. 

Oracles,  on  ecstasy,  212-214; 
on  poetry,  207-208;  on  na 
ture,  132;  mysticism  in,  94; 
Emerson  on,  6. 

Orientalism,  264-279. 

Orphic  Poet,  246-248. 

Over-Soul,  The,  88,  95,  299. 

Over-Soul,  the,   doctrine  of, 


324 


INDEX 


84-90,  162,  273;  in  art,  191- 
192;  name,  277. 


Pan,  255. 

Pan,  myth  of,  251-255. 

Pantheism,  64-66. 

Plato,  10. 

Plato,  on  creation,  37,  194; 
on  early  philosophers,  14; 
on  evil,  237,  281-282;  on 
flux,  56-58;  on  idea,  59; 
on  immortality,  136-137; 
on  love,  146,  163,  171 ;  on 
names,  35,  205;  on  original 
men,  222-223 ;  on  poetic  in 
spiration,  214,  276;  on  rem 
iniscence,  157,  272;  on  the 
Good,  53;  on  time,  38,  240; 
relations  with  East,  264; 
symbolism  in,  36-38. 

Plotinus,  as  philosopher,  205; 
being  in,  no,  120;  dialectic 
in,  129;  mysticism  in,  92- 
97,  105,  162,  270;  on  arche 
types,  156;  on  the  arts,  193; 
on  beauty,  173;  on  celestial 
love,  155;  on  contemplation, 
67,  275 ;  on  creative  power 
of  soul,  121 ;  on  divinity, 
304;  on  emanation,  63,  122; 
on  ecstasy,  211;  on  immor 
tality,  135 ;  on  intellect,  126, 
156;  on  intuition,  297;  on 
matter,  112;  on  the  One, 
127,  156;  on  punishment, 
241 ;  on  submission,  123 ; 
on  Universal  Soul,  139. 


Plutarch,  on  beauty,  181,  184; 
on  daemons,  148,  150;  on 
the  Furies,  257;  on  human 
lot,  242;  on  love,  165-170; 
on  sun,  249;  on  symbolism, 
35-36;  on  brothers,  223. 

Poet,  a  liberating  god,  210; 
as  ideal  man,  218;  as 
scientist,  206 ;  different 
from  philosopher,  208;  his 
inspiration,  210,  214;  his  re 
lation  to  man  of  action, 
200;  his  use  of  symbols, 
202,  203. 

Poetry,  and  science,  205 ;  defi 
nition  of,  207;  Proclus'  ac 
count  of,  195-200. 

Polarity,  69. 

Prayer,  282-284. 

Proclus,  on  Bacchus,  275;  on 
beauty,  177,  179,  183;  on 
the  daemon,  149;  on  defects, 
257 ;  on  evil,  281 ;  on  fall 
of  man,  284;  on  fate,  131, 
132;  on  good  of  evil,  238; 
on  immortality,  138;  on 
line  and  circle,  239;  on 
microcosm,  72;  on  mythol 
ogy,  251 ;  on  poetry,  195- 
200;  Pythagoreanism  in,  19. 

Proteus,  255-256. 

Pythagoreanism,  17,  18,  19, 
69,  70,  108,  115,  159-160, 
216,  245. 

R 

Reason,  295. 
Regeneration,  75. 


INDEX 


325 


Reminiscence,  272-274. 
Representative  Men,  16. 
Rhymes,  215-217. 


Schelling,  289. 
Self -Reliance,  108. 
Self-reliance,     106-108,     283, 

291. 

Seneca,  226. 
Shakespeare,  c^- 
Simplicius,  128. 
Sin,  280. 

Smaragdine  Table,  217. 
Solitude,  06-97,   158-161. 
Soul,    75-76,   78-80,   88,    120- 

121.     See  Over- Soul. 
Sphinx,  The,  228-235. 
Sphinx,  227-235. 
Swedenborg,  306. 
Synesius,  152,  230. 
Symbolism,  of  line  and  circle, 

239;    of   nature,   35-40;    in 

poetry,  202-204. 


Taylor,   Thomas,   4,   7,   8,   9, 

19,  142,  143,  230,  231. 
Thinking,  126,  128. 
Time,  38,  39,  240,  269,  270. 
Transcendentalism,  287-306. 


Transcendentalist,    The,    291, 

302. 
Transmigration  of  souls,  272- 

277. 
Trinity  of  beauty,  truth  and 

goodness,     182,     201,     292; 

Platonic,  79. 
Two-Rivers,  61-62. 


U 


Understanding,  295. 

Unity  of  things,  72-75,  268- 

269. 
Universal   Mind,  80-82,    186^ 

191,  225,  300-301. 
Uriel,  237-241. 


Vice,  III-II2. 

W 

World-Soul,  The,  141-142. 
World-Soul,  The,  139-144. 

X 

Xenophanes,  73. 
Z 
Zoroaster,  see  Oracles. 


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